# A Man Doomed explained — The Teeth of the Tiger > Chapter companion for The Teeth of the Tiger by Maurice Leblanc. ## What happens Don Luis Perenna and Sergeant Mazeroux discover the bodies of Hippolyte Fauville and his son Edmond, both poisoned despite Perenna's protection. The crucial diary that Fauville had shown them is missing from the safe. Perenna realizes he is now the prime suspect and must find the true murderer within hours to avoid arrest. ## Themes in this chapter ### Crime and Punishment The double murder of Fauville and his son, and Perenna's vow to avenge them. ### Fate and Determinism Fauville's premonition of doom and the inevitability of the murders despite precautions. ### Intelligence and Cunning The missing diary and the murderer's ability to outwit Perenna and the police. ## Character check-ins ### Don Luis Perenna Discovers the double murder, swears vengeance, and realizes he is framed. ### Sergeant Mazeroux Assists Perenna, weeps with anger, and swears to avenge the murders. ### Hippolyte Fauville Found dead, poisoned; had shown Perenna his diary detailing the plot against him. ### Edmond Fauville Hippolyte's son, also found dead with the same puncture mark. ### M. Desmalions Mentioned as the Prefect of Police who takes immense interest in the case. ## Key lines > Perenna resolutely took hold of his hand. It was icy cold. Don Luis at once recovered all his self-possession. "The window! Open the window!" he cried. And, when the light flooded the room, he saw the face of Hippolyte Fauville all swollen, stained with brown patches. "Oh," he said, under his breath, "he's dead!" Perenna grabbed Fauville's hand and found it ice-cold. He quickly regained his composure and ordered the window opened. In the light, he saw Fauville's swollen, discolored face and realized he was dead. _Discovery of Hippolyte Fauville's body._ > Then a sudden idea made Perenna start. He flew up the winding staircase, rushed along the gallery, and darted into the attic. Edmond, Hippolyte Fauville's son, lay stiff and stark on his bed, with a cadaverous face, dead, too. A sudden thought struck Perenna; he ran upstairs to the attic and found Edmond Fauville also dead on his bed. _Discovery of Edmond Fauville's body._ > He took the diary, and, emphasizing his words, said: "There, look, it's all in here. With this, the hideous business can be reconstructed. There are my suspicions first and then my certainties. Everything, everything... how to trap them and how to do for them. You'll remember, won't you? A diary bound in drab cloth. I'm putting it back in the safe." Fauville showed Perenna his diary, claiming it contained all his suspicions and certainties about the plot, and said he was returning it to the safe. _Fauville's explanation of the diary's importance._ > Mazeroux plunged both hands into the crowd of papers that encumbered the iron shelf. "Well, Mazeroux, hand it over." "What?" "The diary." "I can't Chief." "What's that?" "It's gone." Mazeroux searched the safe but could not find the diary; it had disappeared. _The diary is missing from the safe._ > If I do not manage to hand over the murderer or murderers of Hippolyte Fauville and his son to the police in a few hours from now, it is I, Don Luis Perenna, who will be lodged in durance vile on the evening of this Thursday, the first of April. Perenna realized that if he did not find the real murderer within hours, he himself would be arrested. _Perenna's realization that he is the prime suspect._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_teeth_of_the_tiger_se/chapters/iii-a-man-doomed - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_teeth_of_the_tiger_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_teeth_of_the_tiger_se/chapters