Collected Works of Gaston Leroux Page 3

  “attacker” since no murder is actually committed.

  Rouletabille sat down in an armchair, lit his pipe, which he was never without, smoked for a few minutes in silence — no doubt to calm the excitement which, visibly, dominated him — and then replied:

  “Young man,” he said, in a tone the sad irony of which I will not attempt to render, “young man, you are a lawyer and I doubt not your ability to save the guilty from conviction; but if you were a magistrate on the bench, how easy it would be for you to condemn innocent persons! — You are really gifted, young man!”

  He continued to smoke energetically, and then went on:

  “No trap will be found, and the mystery of “The Yellow Room” will become more and more mysterious. That’s why it interests me. The examining magistrate is right; nothing stranger than this crime has ever been known.”

  “Have you any idea of the way by which the murderer escaped?” I asked.

  “None,” replied Rouletabille— “none, for the present. But I have an idea as to the revolver; the murderer did not use it.”

  “Good Heavens! By whom, then, was it used?”

  “Why — by Mademoiselle Stangerson.”

  “I don’t understand, — or rather, I have never understood,” I said.

  Rouletabille shrugged his shoulders.

  “Is there nothing in this article in the ‘Matin’ by which you were particularly struck?”

  “Nothing, — I have found the whole of the story it tells equally strange.”

  “Well, but — the locked door — with the key on the inside?”

  “That’s the only perfectly natural thing in the whole article.”

  “Really! — And the bolt?”

  “The bolt?”

  “Yes, the bolt — also inside the room — a still further protection against entry? Mademoiselle Stangerson took quite extraordinary precautions! It is clear to me that she feared someone. That was why she took such precautions — even Daddy Jacques’s revolver — without telling him of it. No doubt she didn’t wish to alarm anybody, and least of all, her father. What she dreaded took place, and she defended herself. There was a struggle, and she used the revolver skilfully enough to wound the assassin in the hand — which explains the impression on the wall and on the door of the large, blood-stained hand of the man who was searching for a means of exit from the chamber. But she didn’t fire soon enough to avoid the terrible blow on the right temple.”

  “Then the wound on the temple was not done with the revolver?”

  “The paper doesn’t say it was, and I don’t think it was; because logically it appears to me that the revolver was used by Mademoiselle Stangerson against the assassin. Now, what weapon did the murderer use? The blow on the temple seems to show that the murderer wished to stun Mademoiselle Stangerson, — after he had unsuccessfully tried to strangle her. He must have known that the attic was inhabited by Daddy Jacques, and that was one of the reasons, I think, why he must have used a quiet weapon, — a life-preserver, or a hammer.”

  “All that doesn’t explain how the murderer got out of “The Yellow Room”,” I observed.

  “Evidently,” replied Rouletabille, rising, “and that is what has to be explained. I am going to the Chateau du Glandier, and have come to see whether you will go with me.”

  “I?—”

  “Yes, my boy. I want you. The ‘Epoque’ has definitely entrusted this case to me, and I must clear it up as quickly as possible.”

  “But in what way can I be of any use to you?”

  “Monsieur Robert Darzac is at the Chateau du Glandier.”

  “That’s true. His despair must be boundless.”

  “I must have a talk with him.”

  Rouletabille said it in a tone that surprised me.

  “Is it because — you think there is something to be got out of him?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  That was all he would say. He retired to my sitting-room, begging me to dress quickly.

  I knew Monsieur Robert Darzac from having been of great service to him in a civil action, while I was acting as secretary to Maitre Barbet Delatour. Monsieur Robert Darzac, who was at that time about forty years of age, was a professor of physics at the Sorbonne. He was intimately acquainted with the Stangersons, and, after an assiduous seven years’ courtship of the daughter, had been on the point of marrying her. In spite of the fact that she has become, as the phrase goes, “a person of a certain age,” she was still remarkably good-looking. While I was dressing I called out to Rouletabille, who was impatiently moving about my sitting-room:

  “Have you any idea as to the murderer’s station in life?”

  “Yes,” he replied; “I think if he isn’t a man in society, he is, at least, a man belonging to the upper class. But that, again, is only an impression.”

  “What has led you to form it?”

  “Well, — the greasy cap, the common handkerchief, and the marks of the rough boots on the floor,” he replied.

  “I understand,” I said; “murderers don’t leave traces behind them which tell the truth.”

  “We shall make something out of you yet, my dear Sainclair,” concluded Rouletabille.

  CHAPTER III. “A Man Has Passed Like a Shadow Through the Blinds”

  HALF AN HOUR later Rouletabille and I were on the platform of the Orleans station, awaiting the departure of the train which was to take us to Epinay-sur-Orge.

  On the platform we found Monsieur de Marquet and his Registrar, who represented the Judicial Court of Corbeil. Monsieur Marquet had spent the night in Paris, attending the final rehearsal, at the Scala, of a little play of which he was the unknown author, signing himself simply “Castigat Ridendo.”

  Monsieur de Marquet was beginning to be a “noble old gentleman.” Generally he was extremely polite and full of gay humour, and in all his life had had but one passion, — that of dramatic art. Throughout his magisterial career he was interested solely in cases capable of furnishing him with something in the nature of a drama. Though he might very well have aspired to the highest judicial positions, he had never really worked for anything but to win a success at the romantic Porte-Saint-Martin, or at the sombre Odeon.

  Because of the mystery which shrouded it, the case of “The Yellow Room” was certain to fascinate so theatrical a mind. It interested him enormously, and he threw himself into it, less as a magistrate eager to know the truth, than as an amateur of dramatic embroglios, tending wholly to mystery and intrigue, who dreads nothing so much as the explanatory final act.

  So that, at the moment of meeting him, I heard Monsieur de Marquet say to the Registrar with a sigh:

  “I hope, my dear Monsieur Maleine, this builder with his pickaxe will not destroy so fine a mystery.”

  “Have no fear,” replied Monsieur Maleine, “his pickaxe may demolish the pavilion, perhaps, but it will leave our case intact. I have sounded the walls and examined the ceiling and floor and I know all about it. I am not to be deceived.”

  Having thus reassured his chief, Monsieur Maleine, with a discreet movement of the head, drew Monsieur de Marquet’s attention to us. The face of that gentleman clouded, and, as he saw Rouletabille approaching, hat in hand, he sprang into one of the empty carriages saying, half aloud to his Registrar, as he did so, “Above all, no journalists!”

  Monsieur Maleine replied in the same tone, “I understand!” and then tried to prevent Rouletabille from entering the same compartment with the examining magistrate.

  “Excuse me, gentlemen, — this compartment is reserved.”

  “I am a journalist, Monsieur, engaged on the ‘Epoque,’” said my young friend with a great show of gesture and politeness, “and I have a word or two to say to Monsieur de Marquet.”

  “Monsieur is very much engaged with the inquiry he has in hand.”

  “Ah! his inquiry, pray believe me, is absolutely a matter of indifference to me. I am no scavenger of odds and ends,” he went on, with infinite contempt in his
lower lip, “I am a theatrical reporter; and this evening I shall have to give a little account of the play at the Scala.”

  “Get in, sir, please,” said the Registrar.

  Rouletabille was already in the compartment. I went in after him and seated myself by his side. The Registrar followed and closed the carriage door.

  Monsieur de Marquet looked at him.

  “Ah, sir,” Rouletabille began, “You must not be angry with Monsieur de Maleine. It is not with Monsieur de Marquet that I desire to have the honour of speaking, but with Monsieur ‘Castigat Ridendo.’ Permit me to congratulate you — personally, as well as the writer for the ‘Epoque.’” And Rouletabille, having first introduced me, introduced himself.

  Monsieur de Marquet, with a nervous gesture, caressed his beard into a point, and explained to Rouletabille, in a few words, that he was too modest an author to desire that the veil of his pseudonym should be publicly raised, and that he hoped the enthusiasm of the journalist for the dramatist’s work would not lead him to tell the public that Monsieur “Castigat Ridendo” and the examining magistrate of Corbeil were one and the same person.

  “The work of the dramatic author may interfere,” he said, after a slight hesitation, “with that of the magistrate, especially in a province where one’s labours are little more than routine.”

  “Oh, you may rely on my discretion!” cried Rouletabille.

  The train was in motion.

  “We have started!” said the examining magistrate, surprised at seeing us still in the carriage.

  “Yes, Monsieur, — truth has started,” said Rouletabile, smiling amiably,— “on its way to the Chateau du Glandier. A fine case, Monsieur de Marquet, — a fine case!”

  “An obscure — incredible, unfathomable, inexplicable affair — and there is only one thing I fear, Monsieur Rouletabille, — that the journalists will be trying to explain it.”

  My friend felt this a rap on his knuckles.

  “Yes,” he said simply, “that is to be feared. They meddle in everything. As for my interest, monsieur, I only referred to it by mere chance, — the mere chance of finding myself in the same train with you, and in the same compartment of the same carriage.”

  “Where are you going, then?” asked Monsieur de Marquet.

  “To the Chateau du Glandier,” replied Rouletabille, without turning.

  “You’ll not get in, Monsieur Rouletabille!”

  “Will you prevent me?” said my friend, already prepared to fight.

  “Not I! — I like the press and journalists too well to be in any way disagreeable to them; but Monsieur Stangerson has given orders for his door to be closed against everybody, and it is well guarded. Not a journalist was able to pass through the gate of the Glandier yesterday.”

  Monsieur de Marquet compressed his lips and seemed ready to relapse into obstinate silence. He only relaxed a little when Rouletabille no longer left him in ignorance of the fact that we were going to the Glandier for the purpose of shaking hands with an “old and intimate friend,” Monsieur Robert Darzac — a man whom Rouletabille had perhaps seen once in his life.

  “Poor Robert!” continued the young reporter, “this dreadful affair may be his death, — he is so deeply in love with Mademoiselle Stangerson.”

  “His sufferings are truly painful to witness,” escaped like a regret from the lips of Monsieur de Marquet.

  “But it is to be hoped that Mademoiselle Stangerson’s life will be saved.”

  “Let us hope so. Her father told me yesterday that, if she does not recover, it will not be long before he joins her in the grave. What an incalculable loss to science his death would be!”

  “The wound on her temple is serious, is it not?”

  “Evidently; but, by a wonderful chance, it has not proved mortal. The blow was given with great force.”

  “Then it was not with the revolver she was wounded,” said Rouletabille, glancing at me in triumph.

  Monsieur de Marquet appeared greatly embarrassed.

  “I didn’t say anything — I don’t want to say anything — I will not say anything,” he said. And he turned towards his Registrar as if he no longer knew us.

  But Rouletabille was not to be so easily shaken off. He moved nearer to the examining magistrate and, drawing a copy of the “Matin” from his pocket, he showed it to him and said:

  “There is one thing, Monsieur, which I may enquire of you without committing an indiscretion. You have, of course, seen the account given in the ‘Matin’? It is absurd, is it not?”

  “Not in the slightest, Monsieur.”

  “What! “The Yellow Room” has but one barred window — the bars of which have not been moved — and only one door, which had to be broken open — and the assassin was not found!”

  “That’s so, monsieur, — that’s so. That’s how the matter stands.”

  Rouletabille said no more but plunged into thought. A quarter of an hour thus passed.

  Coming back to himself again he said, addressing the magistrate:

  “How did Mademoiselle Stangerson wear her hair on that evening?”

  “I don’t know,” replied Monsieur de Marquet.

  “That’s a very important point,” said Rouletabille. “Her hair was done up in bands, wasn’t it? I feel sure that on that evening, the evening of the crime, she had her hair arranged in bands.”

  “Then you are mistaken, Monsieur Rouletabille,” replied the magistrate; “Mademoiselle Stangerson that evening had her hair drawn up in a knot on the top of her head, — her usual way of arranging it — her forehead completely uncovered. I can assure you, for we have carefully examined the wound. There was no blood on the hair, and the arrangement of it has not been disturbed since the crime was committed.”

  “You are sure! You are sure that, on the night of the crime, she had not her hair in bands?”

  “Quite sure,” the magistrate continued, smiling, “because I remember the Doctor saying to me, while he was examining the wound, ‘It is a great pity Mademoiselle Stangerson was in the habit of drawing her hair back from her forehead. If she had worn it in bands, the blow she received on the temple would have been weakened.’ It seems strange to me that you should attach so much importance to this point.”

  “Oh! if she had not her hair in bands, I give it up,” said Rouletabille, with a despairing gesture.

  “And was the wound on her temple a bad one?” he asked presently.

  “Terrible.”

  “With what weapon was it made?”

  “That is a secret of the investigation.”

  “Have you found the weapon — whatever it was?”

  The magistrate did not answer.

  “And the wound in the throat?”

  Here the examining magistrate readily confirmed the decision of the doctor that, if the murderer had pressed her throat a few seconds longer, Mademoiselle Stangerson would have died of strangulation.

  “The affair as reported in the ‘Matin,’” said Rouletabille eagerly, “seems to me more and more inexplicable. Can you tell me, Monsieur, how many openings there are in the pavilion? I mean doors and windows.”

  “There are five,” replied Monsieur de Marquet, after having coughed once or twice, but no longer resisting the desire he felt to talk of the whole of the incredible mystery of the affair he was investigating. “There are five, of which the door of the vestibule is the only entrance to the pavilion, — a door always automatically closed, which cannot be opened, either from the outer or inside, except with the two special keys which are never out of the possession of either Daddy Jacques or Monsieur Stangerson. Mademoiselle Stangerson had no need for one, since Daddy Jacques lodged in the pavilion and because, during the daytime, she never left her father. When they, all four, rushed into “The Yellow Room”, after breaking open the door of the laboratory, the door in the vestibule remained closed as usual and, of the two keys for opening it, Daddy Jacques had one in his pocket, and Monsieur Stangerson the other. As to the windows of t
he pavilion, there are four; the one window of The Yellow Room and those of the laboratory looking out on to the country; the window in the vestibule looking into the park.”

  “It is by that window that he escaped from the pavilion!” cried Rouletabille.

  “How do you know that?” demanded Monsieur de Marquet, fixing a strange look on my young friend.

  “We’ll see later how he got away from “The Yellow Room”,” replied Rouletabille, “but he must have left the pavilion by the vestibule window.”

  “Once more, — how do you know that?”

  “How? Oh, the thing is simple enough! As soon as he found he could not escape by the door of the pavilion his only way out was by the window in the vestibule, unless he could pass through a grated window. The window of “The Yellow Room” is secured by iron bars, because it looks out upon the open country; the two windows of the laboratory have to be protected in like manner for the same reason. As the murderer got away, I conceive that he found a window that was not barred, — that of the vestibule, which opens on to the park, — that is to say, into the interior of the estate. There’s not much magic in all that.”

  “Yes,” said Monsieur de Marquet, “but what you have not guessed is that this single window in the vestibule, though it has no iron bars, has solid iron blinds. Now these iron blinds have remained fastened by their iron latch; and yet we have proof that the murderer made his escape from the pavilion by that window! Traces of blood on the inside wall and on the blinds as well as on the floor, and footmarks, of which I have taken the measurements, attest the fact that the murderer made his escape that way. But then, how did he do it, seeing that the blinds remained fastened on the inside? He passed through them like a shadow. But what is more bewildering than all is that it is impossible to form any idea as to how the murderer got out of “The Yellow Room”, or how he got across the laboratory to reach the vestibule! Ah, yes, Monsieur Rouletabille, it is altogether as you said, a fine case, the key to which will not be discovered for a long time, I hope.”

  “You hope, Monsieur?”

  Monsieur de Marquet corrected himself.