“Capital.  I always was frightened at night.”

“But, good Lord! what are you hoping for?”

“I hope for nothing, Alexandre.  I am sure.  I am sure now that they will not dare arrest me.”

“Do you imagine that Weber will stand on ceremony?”

“I don’t care a hang about Weber.  Without orders, Weber can do nothing.”

“But they’ll give him his orders.”

“The order to shadow me, yes; to arrest me, no.  The Prefect of Police has committed himself about me to such an extent that he will be obliged to back me up.  And then there’s this:  the whole affair is so absurd, so complicated, that you people will never find your way out of it alone.  Sooner or later, you will come and fetch me.  For there is no one but myself able to fight such adversaries as these:  not you nor Weber, nor any of your pals at the detective office.  I shall expect your visit, Alexandre.”

On the next day an expert examination identified the tooth prints on the two apples and likewise established the fact that the print on the cake of chocolate was similar to the others.

Also, the driver of a taxicab came and gave evidence that a lady engaged him as she left the opera, told him to drive her straight to the end of the Avenue Henri Martin, and left the cab on reaching that spot.

Now the end of the Avenue Henri Martin was within five minutes’ walk of the Fauvilles’ house.

The man was brought into Mme. Fauville’s presence and recognized her at once.

What had she done in that neighbourhood for over an hour?

Marie Fauville was taken to the central lockup, was entered on the register, and slept, that night, at the Saint-Lazare prison.

That same day, when the reporters were beginning to publish details of the investigation, such as the discovery of the tooth prints, but when they did not yet know to whom to attribute them, two of the leading dailies used as a headline for their article the very words which Don Luis Perenna had employed to describe the marks on the apple, the sinister words which so well suggested the fierce, savage, and so to speak, brutal character of the incident: 

“The teeth of the tiger.”

CHAPTER FIVE

THE IRON CURTAIN

It is sometimes an ungrateful task to tell the story of Arsene Lupin’s life, for the reason that each of his adventures is partly known to the public, having at the time formed the subject of much eager comment, whereas his biographer is obliged, if he would throw light upon what is not known, to begin at the beginning and to relate in full detail all that which is already public property.

It is because of this necessity that I am compelled to speak once more of the extreme excitement which the news of that shocking series of crimes created in France, in Europe and throughout the civilized world.  The public heard of four murders practically all at once, for the particulars of Cosmo Mornington’s will were published two days later.