<< previousnext >>

55

XVIII. A SLEEPER 165

XIX. FREE! 174

XX. FREDERICK-CHRISTIAN 180

XXI. HORRIBLE CERTAINTY 190

XXII. BETWEEN US THREE--FANTÔMAS! 195

XXIII. OFFICIAL OPINIONS 210

XXIV. JUVE'S LIES 218

XXV. "I WANT TO LIVE!" 224

XXVI. THE ACCUSING WAISTCOAT 227

XXVII. THE EXPLOSION OF THE NORD-SUD 234

XXVIII. INNOCENT OR GUILTY? 243

XXIX. COMPROMISING DISCOVERIES 250

XXX. SHADOWED 256

XXXI. THE DEATH WATCH 264

XXXII. THE ARREST OF FANTÔMAS 270

---

A ROYAL PRISONER

CHAPTER I

A ROYAL JAG

"After all, why not celebrate? It's the last day of the year and it won't come again for twelve months."

It was close upon midnight.

Jerome Fandor, reporter on the popular newspaper, La Capitale, was strolling along the boulevard; he had just come from a banquet, one of those official and deadly affairs at which the guests are obliged to listen to interminable speeches. He had drowsed through the evening and at the first opportunity had managed to slip away quickly.

The theatres were just out and the boulevard was crowded with people intent on making a night of it. Numberless automobiles containing the fashionable and rich of Paris blocked the streets. The restaurants were brilliantly illuminated, and as carriages discharged their occupants before the doors, one glimpsed the neat feet and ankles of daintily clad women as they crossed the sidewalk and disappeared inside, following their silk-hatted escorts, conscious of their own importance.

Many years of active service in Paris as chief reporter of La Capitale had brought Jerome Fandor in touch with a good third of those who constitute Parisian society, and rarely did he fail to exchange a nod, a smile, or half a dozen words of friendly greeting whenever he set foot out of doors.

But in spite of his popularity he led a lonely life--many acquainta

next >>