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In Which Joseph Roultabille Appears for the First Time.
I remember as well as if it had occurred yesterday, the entry of young Rouletabille into my bedroom that morning.

It was about eight o'clock and I was still in bed reading the article in the "Matin" relative to the Glandier crime.
But, before going further, it is time that I present my friend to the reader.
I first knew Joseph Rouletabille when he was a young reporter.

At that time I was a beginner at the Bar and often met him in the corridors of examining magistrates, when I had gone to get a "permit to communicate" for the prison of Mazas, or for Saint-Lazare.

He had, as they say, "a good nut." He seemed to have taken his head--round as a bullet--out of a box of marbles, and it is from that, I think, that his comrades of the press--all determined billiard-players--had given him that nickname, which was to stick to him and be made illustrious by him.