Friends called him Mr. Smiles. but his face was plastered on 170,000 posters that called him something different: FRANCE'S MOST WANTED MAN. Ever since his fingerprints were found on a homemade bomb that failed to explode near the Paris-Lyons high-speed train track on Aug. 26, Khaled Kelkal, 24, had been stalked by French lawmen. Last Friday, after a two-day manhunt by more than 800 gendarmes in the wooded suburbs around Lyons, the Algerian-born youth was shot dead in a brief firefight. But if the gendarmes got their man, the larger questions remained unanswered: Who was Khaled Kelkal; who was he working for; and what was the connection, if any, between him and the bombing wave that has left seven dead and more than 130 wounded since July 25? Most important, did his death, and the capture of three of his accomplices, herald an end to the bloodshed?

Nothing seemed to predispose Kelkal to a career as a terrorist. Born in Mostaganem, Algeria, he settled with his family in the working-class Lyons suburb of Vaulx-en-Velin. He made good grades in school until his final year in the lycee, when he was caught stealing a car and sent to prison for four years. Following his release, police say, he may have come under the influence of militant fundamentalists seeking to topple Algeria's military-backed government.

Police picked up Kelkal's trace on July 15 after the car he was riding in shot its way past a police barricade during a routine identity check. When his fingerprints appeared on a gas-canister bomb five weeks later, French authorities offered a hefty reward for information leading to his capture.

Last Wednesday a mushroom picker spotted a grenade in a wooded area near Lyons and alerted the gendarmes. When they arrived on the scene, they found Kelkal and another youth camping in the forest. While his comrade opened fire, Kelkal managed to slip away, and for the next 48 hours authorities combed the 400-sq-km wooded area with dogs and helicopters. At 7:30 Friday evening they intercepted his phone call to a friend saying he was still trapped in the region. Shortly afterward, a resident of the Lyons suburb of Vaugneray spotted him waiting at a bus stop. When the gendarmes arrived, Kelkal, wearing military-style khakis, yanked a 7.65-mm pistol and opened fire. Defying orders to give himself up, he continued shooting until bullets cut him down.