Part 25 (1/2)
Bertillon pressed a bell, and asked the official who answered it:
”Have you identified the imprints I sent you just now?”
”Yes, sir. This man has already been measured here. It is register 9200.”
Bertillon turned to Fandor:
”You see, I was not mistaken! All I have to do is to turn up my alphabetical index, and for this very month, for the number is a recent one, and I shall know the name of the old offender--he must be one, as he is catalogued here--who has committed this a.s.sault.”
Whilst speaking, Monsieur Bertillon was turning over the leaves of an enormous register:
”Ah! Here is the 9200 series!...”
Suddenly the book slipped from his hands, and he exclaimed: ”The guilty man is ...”
”Is who?” questioned Fandor.
”Is Jacques Dollon!... The hand that has robbed Princess Sonia Danidoff is the hand of Jacques Dollon!”
”But it is impossible!”
Bertillon shrugged his shoulders.
”Impossible?... Why, since the proof of it is there?”
”But Jacques Dollon is dead!”
”He was the thief of yesterday's crime.”
”You are making a mistake!...”
”I am not making a mistake!... Jacques Dollon is the thief I tell you!”
This was too much for Jerome Fandor: he could not contain himself.
”And I tell you, Monsieur Bertillon, that I know that I am certain--positively certain, that Jacques Dollon is dead!... Now, then!...”
The man of science shook his head.
”I, in my turn, say, you are making a mistake! Look at the two imprints I have here! That of Jacques Dollon taken a few days ago, and this made from the impressions obtained this very night, or, to be exact, in the early morning hours of to-day! They are identical--one can be exactly superposed on the other!...”
”Coincidence!”
”There is no such coincidence possible--besides”--Monsieur Bertillon took up a powerful magnifying gla.s.s--”look at these characteristic details!... Just look at the lines of the thumb, all out of shape!...
The presentment of the thumb itself is not normal either; it denotes habitual movement in a certain direction: it is the thumb of a painter, of a potter!... Oh, it is all as clear as daylight--believe me--there is no doubt about it! Jacques Dollon is the guilty person!”
”But,” repeated Fandor obstinately: ”Jacques Dollon is dead! I swear to you he is dead!...”