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 wallsand 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 modestan 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 hisdoor 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 the 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.
"I do not hope so,—I think so.""Could that window have been closed and refastened after the flight of the
assassin?" asked Rouletabille.
"That is what occurred to me for a moment; but it would imply an
accomplice or accomplices,—and I don't see—"
After a short silence he added:
"Ah—if Mademoiselle Stangerson were only well enough to-day to be
questioned!"
Rouletabille following up his thought, asked:
"And the attic?—There must be some opening to that?"
"Yes; there is a window, or rather skylight, in it, which, as it looks out
towards the country, Monsieur Stangerson has had barred, like the rest of
the windows. These bars, as in the other windows, have remained intact,
and the blinds, which naturally open inwards, have not been unfastened. For
the rest, we have not discovered anything to lead us to suspect that the
murderer had passed through the attic."
"It seems clear to you, then, Monsieur, that the murderer escaped—nobody
knows how—by the window in the vestibule?"
"Everything goes to prove it."
"I think so, too," confessed Rouletabille gravely.
After a brief silence, he continued:
"If you have not found any traces of the murderer in the attic, such as the
dirty footmarks similar to those on the floor of The Yellow Room, you must
come to the conclusion that it was not he who stole Daddy Jacques's
revolver."
"There are no footmarks in the attic other than those of Daddy Jacques
himself," said the magistrate with a significant turn of his head. Then, after
an apparent decision, he added: "Daddy Jacques was with Monsieur
Stangerson in the laboratory—and it was lucky for him he was.""Then what part did his revolver play in the tragedy?—It seems very clear
that this weapon did less harm to Mademoiselle Stangerson than it did to
the murderer."
The magistrate made no reply to this question, which doubtless
embarrassed him. "Monsieur Stangerson," he said, "tells us that the two
bullets have been found in The Yellow Room, one embedded in the wall
stained with the impression of a red hand—a man's large hand—and the
other in the ceiling."
"Oh! oh! in the ceiling!" muttered Rouletabille. "In the ceiling! That's very
curious!—In the ceiling!"
He puffed awhile in silence at his pipe, enveloping himself in the smoke.
When we reached Savigny-sur-Orge, I had to tap him on the shoulder to
arouse him from his dream and come out on to the platform of the station.
There, the magistrate and his Registrar bowed to us, and by rapidly getting
into a cab that was awaiting them, made us understand that they had seen
enough of us.
"How long will it take to walk to the Chateau du Glandier?" Rouletabille
asked one of the railway porters.
"An hour and a half or an hour and three quarters—easy walking," the man
replied.
Rouletabille looked up at the sky and, no doubt, finding its appearance
satisfactory, took my arm and said:
"Come on!—I need a walk."
"Are things getting less entangled?" I asked.
"Not a bit of it!" he said, "more entangled than ever! It's true, I have an
idea—"
"What's that?" I asked.
"I can't tell you what it is just at present—it's an idea involving the life or
death of two persons at least.""Do you think there were accomplices?"
"I don't think it—"
We fell into silence. Presently he went on:
"It was a bit of luck, our falling in with that examining magistrate and his
Registrar, eh? What did I tell you about that revolver?" His head was bent
down, he had his hands in his pockets, and he was whistling. After a while I
heard him murmur:
"Poor woman!"
"Is it Mademoiselle Stangerson you are pitying?"
"Yes; she's a noble woman and worthy of being pitied!—a woman of a
great, a very great character—I imagine—I imagine."
"You know her then?"
"Not at all. I have never seen her."
"Why, then, do you say that she is a woman of great character?"
"Because she bravely faced the murderer; because she courageously
defended herself—and, above all, because of the bullet in the ceiling."
I looked at Rouletabille and inwardly wondered whether he was not
mocking me, or whether he had not suddenly gone out of his senses. But I
saw that he had never been less inclined to laugh, and the brightness of his
keenly intelligent eyes assured me that he retained all his reason. Then, too,
I was used to his broken way of talking, which only left me puzzled as to his
meaning, till, with a very few clear, rapidly uttered words, he would make
the drift of his ideas clear to me, and I saw that what he had previously said,
and which had appeared to me void of meaning, was so thoroughly logical
that I could not understand how it was I had not understood him sooner.