As he listened to what Monsieur Darzac had to say, Rouletabille
turned pale.
"Has Frederic Larsan found out the truth, which I can only guess
at?" he murmured. "He is very clever--very clever--and I admire
him. But what we have to do to-day is something more than the work
of a policeman, something quite different from the teachings of
experience. We have to take hold of our reason by the right end."
The reporter rushed into the open air, agitated by the thought that
the great and famous Fred might anticipate him in the solution of
the problem of The Yellow Room.
I managed to reach him on the threshold of the pavilion. "Calm
yourself, my dear fellow," I said. "Aren't you satisfied?"
"Yes," he confessed to me, with a deep sigh. "I am quite satisfied.
I have discovered many things."
"Moral or material?"
"Several moral,--one material. This, for example."
And rapidly he drew from his waistcoat pocket a piece of paper in
which he had placed a light-coloured hair from a woman's head.
CHAPTER VIII
The Examining Magistrate Questions Mademoiselle Stangerson
Two minutes later, as Rouletabille was bending over the footprints
discovered in the park, under the window of the vestibule, a man,
evidently a servant at the chateau, came towards us rapidly and
called out to Monsieur Darzac then coming out of the pavilion:
"Monsieur Robert, the magistrate, you know, is questioning
Mademoiselle."
Monsieur Darzac uttered a muttered excuse to us and set off running
towards the chateau, the man running after him.
"If the corpse can speak," I said, "it would be interesting to be
there."
"We must know," said my friend. "Let's go to the chateau." And he
drew me with him. But, at the chateau, a gendarme placed in the
vestibule denied us admission up the staircase of the first floor.
We were obliged to wait down stairs.
This is what passed in the chamber of the victim while we were
waiting below.
The family doctor, finding that Mademoiselle Stangerson was much
better, but fearing a relapse which would no longer permit of her
being questioned, had thought it his duty to inform the examining
magistrate of this, who decided to proceed immediately with a brief
examination. At this examination, the Registrar, Monsieur
Stangerson, and the doctor were present. Later, I obtained the text
of the report of the examination, and I give it here, in all its
legal dryness:
"Question. Are you able, mademoiselle, without too much fatiguing
yourself, to give some necessary details of the frightful attack of
which you have been the victim?
"Answer. I feel much better, monsieur, and I will tell you all I
know. When I entered my chamber I did not notice anything unusual
there.
"Q. Excuse me, mademoiselle,--if you will allow me, I will ask you
some questions and you will answer them. That will fatigue you less
than making a long recital.
"A. Do so, monsieur.
"Q. What did you do on that day?--I want you to be as minute and
precise as possible. I wish to know all you did that day, if it is
not asking too much of you.
"A. I rose late, at ten o'clock, for my father and I had returned
home late on the night previously, having been to dinner at the
reception given by the President of the Republic, in honour of the
Academy of Science of Philadelphia. When I left my chamber, at
half-past ten, my father was already at work in the laboratory. We
worked together till midday. We then took half-an-hour's walk in
the park, as we were accustomed to do, before breakfasting at the
chateau. After breakfast, we took another walk for half an hour,
and then returned to the laboratory. There we found my chambermaid,
who had come to set my room in order. I went into The Yellow Room
to give her some slight orders and she directly afterwards left the
pavilion, and I resumed my work with my father. At five o'clock,
we again went for a walk in the park and afterward had tea.
"Q. Before leaving the pavilion at five o'clock, did you go into your
chamber?
"A. No, monsieur, my father went into it, at my request to bring
me my hat.
"Q. And he found nothing suspicious there?
"A. Evidently no, monsieur.
"Q. It is, then, almost certain that the murderer was not yet
room locked?
"A. No, there was no reason for locking it.
"Q. You were absent from the pavilion some length of time, Monsieur
Stangerson and you?
"A. About an hour.
"Q. It was during that hour, no doubt, that the murderer got into
the pavilion. But how? Nobody knows. Footmarks have been found
in the park, leading away from the window of the vestibule, but none
has been found going towards it. Did you notice whether the
vestibule window was open when you went out?
"A. I don't remember.
"Monsieur Stangerson. It was closed.
"Q. And when you returned?
"Mademoiselle Stangerson. I did not notice.
"M. Stangerson. It was still closed. I remember remarking aloud:
'Daddy Jacques must surely have opened it while we were away.'
"Q. Strange!--Do you recollect, Monsieur Stangerson, if during
your absence, and before going out, he had opened it? You returned
to the laboratory at six o'clock and resumed work?
"Mademoiselle Stangerson. Yes, monsieur.
"Q. And you did not leave the laboratory from that hour up to the
moment when you entered your chamber?
"M. Stangerson. Neither my daughter nor I, monsieur. We were
engaged on work that was pressing, and we lost not a moment,
--neglecting everything else on that account.
"Q. Did you dine in the laboratory?
"A. For that reason.
"Q. Are you accustomed to dine in the laboratory?
"A. We rarely dine there.
"Q. Could the murderer have known that you would dine there that
evening?
"M. Stangerson. Good Heavens!--I think not. It was only when
we returned to the pavilion at six o'clock, that we decided, my
daughter and I, to dine there. At that moment I was spoken to by
my gamekeeper, who detained me a moment, to ask me to accompany
him on an urgent tour of inspection in a part of the woods which I
had decided to thin. I put this off until the next day, and begged
him, as he was going by the chateau, to tell the steward that we
should dine in the laboratory. He left me, to execute the errand
and I rejoined my daughter, who was already at work.
"Q. At what hour, mademoiselle, did you go to your chamber while
your father continued to work there?
"A. At midnight.
"Q. Did Daddy Jacques enter The Yellow Room in the course of
the evening?
"A. To shut the blinds and light the night-light.
"Q. He saw nothing suspicious?
"A. He would have told us if he had seen.
Daddy Jacques is an
honest man and very attached to me.
"Q. You affirm, Monsieur Stangerson, that Daddy Jacques remained
with you all the time you were in the laboratory?
"M. Stangerson. I am sure of it. I have no doubt of that.
"Q. When you entered your chamber, mademoiselle, you immediately
shut the door and locked and bolted it? That was taking unusual
precautions, knowing that your father and your servant were there?
Were you in fear of something, then?
"A. My father would be returning to the chateau and Daddy Jacques
would be going to his bed. And, in fact, I did fear something.
"Q. You were so much in fear of something that you borrowed Daddy
Jacques's revolver without telling him you had done so?
"A. That is true. I did not wish to alarm anybody,--the more,
because my fears might have proved to have been foolish.
"Q. What was it you feared?
"A. I hardly know how to tell you. For several nights, I seemed
to hear, both in the park and out of the park, round the pavilion,
unusual sounds, sometimes footsteps, at other times the cracking
of branches. The night before the attack on me, when I did not
get to bed before three o'clock in the morning, on our return from
the Elysee, I stood for a moment before my window, and I felt sure
I saw shadows.
"Q. How many?
"A. Two. They moved round the lake,--then the moon became clouded
and I lost sight of them. At this time of the season, every year, I
have generally returned to my apartment in the chateau for the
winter; but this year I said to myself that I would not quit the
pavilion before my father had finished the resume of his works on
the 'Dissociation of Matter' for the Academy. I did not wish that
that important work, which was to have been finished in the course
of a few days, should be delayed by a change in our daily habit.
You can well understand that I did not wish to speak of my childish
fears to my father, nor did I say anything to Daddy Jacques who, I
knew, would not have been able to hold his tongue. Knowing that he
had a revolver in his room, I took advantage of his absence and
borrowed it, placing it in the drawer of my night-table.
"Q. You know of no enemies you have?
"A. None.
"Q. You understand, mademoiselle, that these precautions are
calculated to cause surprise?
"M. Stangerson. Evidently, my child, such precautions are very
surprising.
"A. No;--because I have told you that I had been uneasy for two
nights.
"M. Stangerson. You ought to have told me of that! This misfortune
would have been avoided.
"Q. The door of The Yellow Room locked, did you go to bed?
"A. Yes, and, being very tired, I at once went to sleep.
"Q. The night-light was still burning?
"A. Yes, but it gave a very feeble light.
"Q. Then, mademoiselle, tell us what happened.
"A. I do not know whether I had been long asleep, but suddenly I
awoke--and uttered a loud cry.
"M. Stangerson. Yes--a horrible cry--'Murder!'--It still rings
in my ears.
"Q. You uttered a loud cry?
"A. A man was in my chamber. He sprang at me and tried to strangle
me. I was nearly stifled when suddenly I was able to reach the
drawer of my night-table and grasp the revolver which I had
placed in it. At that moment the man had forced me to the foot
of my bed and brandished in over my head a sort of mace. But
I had fired. He immediately struck a terrible blow at my head.
All that, monsieur, passed more rapidly than I can tell it, and
I know nothing more.
"Q. Nothing?--Have you no idea as to how the assassin could
escape from your chamber?
"A. None whatever--I know nothing more. One does not know what
is passing around one, when one is unconscious.
"Q. Was the man you saw tall or short, little or big?
"A. I only saw a shadow which appeared to me formidable.
"Q. You cannot give us any indication?
"A. I know nothing more, monsieur, than that a man threw himself
upon me and that I fired at him. I know nothing more."
Here the interrogation of Mademoiselle Stangerson concluded.
Rouletabille waited patiently for Monsieur Robert Darzac, who soon
appeared.
From a room near the chamber of Mademoiselle Stangerson, he had
heard the interrogatory and now came to recount it to my friend
with great exactitude, aided by an excellent memory. His docility
still surprised me. Thanks to hasty pencil-notes, he was able to
reproduce, almost textually, the questions and the answers given.
It looked as if Monsieur Darzac were being employed as the secretary
of my young friend and acted as if he could refuse him nothing; nay,
more, as if under a compulsion to do so.
The fact of the closed window struck the reporter as it had struck
the magistrate. Rouletabille asked Darzac to repeat once more
Mademoiselle Stangerson's account of how she and her father had
spent their time on the day of the tragedy, as she had stated it
to the magistrate. The circumstance of the dinner in the laboratory
seemed to interest him in the highest degree; and he had it repeated
to him three times. He also wanted to be sure that the forest-keeper
knew that the professor and his daughter were going to dine in the
laboratory, and how he had come to know it.
When Monsieur Darzac had finished, I said: "The examination has not
advanced the problem much."
"It has put it back," said Monsieur Darzac.
"It has thrown light upon it," said Rouletabille, thoughtfully.
CHAPTER IX
Reporter and Detective
The three of us went back towards the pavilion. At some distance
from the building the reporter made us stop and, pointing to a small
clump of trees to the right of us, said:
"That's where the murderer came from to get into the pavilion."
As there were other patches of trees of the same sort between the
great oaks, I asked why the murderer had chosen that one, rather
than any of the others. Rouletabille answered me by pointing to
the path which ran quite close to the thicket to the door of the
pavilion.
"That path is as you see, topped with gravel," he said; "the man
must have passed along it going to the pavilion, since no traces of
his steps have been found on the soft ground. The man didn't have
wings; he walked; but he walked on the gravel which left no
impression of his tread. The gravel has, in fact, been trodden by
many other feet, since the path is the most direct way between the
pavilion and the chateau. As to the thicket, made of the sort of
shrubs that don't flourish in the rough season--laurels and
fuchsias--it offered the murderer a sufficient hiding-place until
it was time for him to make his way to the pavilion. It was while
hiding in that clump of trees that he saw Monsieur and Mademoiselle
Stangerson, a
nd then Daddy Jacques, leave the pavilion. Gravel has
been spread nearly, very nearly, up to the windows of the pavilion.
The footprints of a man, parallel with the wall--marks which we
will examine presently, and which I have already seen--prove that
he only needed to make one stride to find himself in front of the
vestibule window, left open by Daddy Jacques. The man drew himself
up by his hands and entered the vestibule."
"After all it is very possible," I said.
"After all what? After all what?" cried Rouletabille.
I begged of him not to be angry; but he was too much irritated to
listen to me and declared, ironically, that he admired the prudent
doubt with which certain people approached the most simple problems,
risking nothing by saying "that is so, or 'that is not so." Their
intelligence would have produced about the same result if nature
had forgotten to furnish their brain-pan with a little grey matter.
As I appeared vexed, my young friend took me by the arm and admitted
that he had not meant that for me; he thought more of me than that.
"If I did not reason as I do in regard to this gravel," he went on,
"I should have to assume a balloon!--My dear fellow, the science
of the aerostation of dirigible balloons is not yet developed enough
for me to consider it and suppose that a murderer would drop from
the clouds! So don't say a thing is possible, when it could not be
otherwise. We know now how the man entered by the window, and we
also know the moment at which he entered,--during the five o'clock
walk of the professor and his daughter. The fact of the presence
of the chambermaid--who had come to clean up The Yellow Room--in
the laboratory, when Monsieur Stangerson and his daughter returned
from their walk, at half-past one, permits us to affirm that at
half-past one the murderer was not in the chamber under the bed,
unless he was in collusion with the chambermaid. What do you say,
Monsieur Darzac?"
Monsieur Darzac shook his head and said he was sure of the
chambermaid's fidelity, and that she was a thoroughly honest and
devoted servant.
"Besides," he added, "at five o'clock Monsieur Stangerson went into
the room to fetch his daughter's hat"
"There is that also," said Rouletabille.
"That the man entered by the window at the time you say, I admit,"
I said; "but why did he shut the window? It was an act which would
necessarily draw the attention of those who had left it open"
"It may be the window was not shut at once," replied the young
reporter. "But if he did shut the window, it was because of the
bend in the gravel path, a dozen yards from the pavilion, and on
account of the three oaks that are growing at that spot."
"What do you mean by that?" asked Monsieur Darzac, who had followed
us and listened with almost breathless attention to all that
Rouletabille had said.
"I'll explain all to you later on, Monsieur, when I think the moment
to be ripe for doing so; but I don't think I have anything of more
importance to say on this affair, if my hypothesis is justified."
"And what is your hypothesis?"
"You will never know if it does not turn out to be the truth. It
is of much too grave a nature to speak of it, so long as it
continues to be only a hypothesis."
"Have you, at least, some idea as to who the murderer is?"
"No, monsieur, I don't know who the murderer is; but don't be afraid,
Monsieur Robert Darzac--I shall know."
I could not but observe that Monsieur Darzac was deeply moved; and
I suspected that Rouletabille's confident assertion was not pleasing
to him. Why, I asked myself, if he was really afraid that the