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The Mystery of the Yellow Room Chapter 14 - "I Expect the Assassin This Evening" · The Gaston Leroux Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen of the Mystery of the Yellow Room. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more free audio books or to volunteer,
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  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Maderra The Mystery
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  Speaker 1: of the Yellow Room by Gaston LaRue, Chapter fourteen. I
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  Speaker 1: expect the assassin this evening. I must take you, said Rouletabille,
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  Speaker 1: so as to enable you to understand to the various scenes.
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  Speaker 1: I myself believe that I have discovered what everybody else
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  Speaker 1: is searching for, namely, how the murderer escaped from the
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  Speaker 1: Yellow Room without any accomplice, and without Mademoiselle Stangerson having
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  Speaker 1: had anything to do with it. But so long as
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  Speaker 1: I am not sure of the real murderer, I cannot
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  Speaker 1: state the theory on which I am working. I can
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  Speaker 1: only say that I believe it to be cool wrecked,
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  Speaker 1: and in any case, a quite natural and simple one.
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  Speaker 1: As to what happened in this place three nights ago,
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  Speaker 1: and I must say it kept me wondering for a
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  Speaker 1: whole day and a night. It passes all belief. The
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  Speaker 1: theory I have formed from the incident is so absurd
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  Speaker 1: that I would rather matters remained as yet unexplained, saying
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  Speaker 1: which the young reporter invited me to go and make
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  Speaker 1: the tour of the chateau with him. The only sound
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  Speaker 1: to be heard was the crunching of the dead leaves
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  Speaker 1: beneath our feet. The silence was so intense that one
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  Speaker 1: might have thought the chateau had been abandoned. The old stones,
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  Speaker 1: the stagnant water of the ditch surrounding the Donjon, the
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  Speaker 1: bleak ground strewn with the dead leaves, the dark skeleton
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  Speaker 1: like outlines of the trees, all contributed to give to
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  Speaker 1: the desolate place, now filled with its awful mystery, a
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  Speaker 1: most funereal aspect. As we passed round the Donjon, we
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  Speaker 1: met the green Man, the forest keeper, who did not
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  Speaker 1: greet us, but walked by as if we had not exist.
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  Speaker 1: He was looking just as I had formerly seen him
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  Speaker 1: through the window of the Donjon inn. He had still
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  Speaker 1: his fowling piece slung at his back, his pipe was
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  Speaker 1: in his mouth, and his eye glasses on his nose,
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  Speaker 1: an odd kind of fish. Rouletabille said to me, in
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  Speaker 1: a low tone, have you spoken to him? I asked yes,
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  Speaker 1: but I could get nothing out of him. His only
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  Speaker 1: answers are grunts and shrugs of the shoulders. He generally
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  Speaker 1: lives on the first floor of the Donjon, a big
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  Speaker 1: room that once served for an oratory. He lives like
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  Speaker 1: a bear, never goes out without his gun, and is
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  Speaker 1: only pleasant with the girls. The women for twelve miles
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  Speaker 1: round are all setting their caps for him. For the present,
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  Speaker 1: he is paying attention to Madame Mathieu, whose husband is
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  Speaker 1: keeping a lynx eye upon her in consequence. After passing
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  Speaker 1: the Donjon, which is situated at the extreme end of
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  Speaker 1: the left wing, we went to the back of the
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  Speaker 1: Chateau Rouletabille. Pointing to a window which I recognized as
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  Speaker 1: the only one belonging to Mademoiselle Stangerson's apartment, said to me,
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  Speaker 1: if you had been here two nights ago, you would
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  Speaker 1: have seen your humble servant at the top of a
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  Speaker 1: ladder about to enter the chateau by that window. As
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  Speaker 1: I expressed some surprise at this piece of nocturnal gymnastics,
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  Speaker 1: he begged me to notice carefully the exterior disposition of
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  Speaker 1: the chateau. We then went back into the building. I
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  Speaker 1: must now show you the first floor of the chateau,
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  Speaker 1: where I am living, said my friend. Rouletabille motioned me
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  Speaker 1: to follow him up a magnificent flight of stairs, ending
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  Speaker 1: in a landing on the first floor. From this landing
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  Speaker 1: one could pass to the right or left wing of
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  Speaker 1: the chateau by a gallery opening from it. This gallery,
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  Speaker 1: high and wide, extended along the whole length of the
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  Speaker 1: building and was lit from the front of the chateau
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  Speaker 1: facing the north. The rooms, the windows of which looked
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  Speaker 1: to the south, opened out of the gallery. Professor Stangerson
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  Speaker 1: inhabited the left wing of the building. Mademoiselle Stangerson had
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  Speaker 1: her apartment in the right wing. We entered the gallery
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  Speaker 1: to the right. A narrow carpet laid on the waxed
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  Speaker 1: oaken floor, which shone like glass, deadened the sound of
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  Speaker 1: our footsteps. Rouletabille asked me in a low tone to
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  Speaker 1: walk carefully as we were passing the door of Mademoiselle
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  Speaker 1: Stangerson's apartment. This consisted of a bedroom, an ante room,
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  Speaker 1: a small bathroom, a boudoir, and a drawing room. One
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  Speaker 1: could pass from one to another of these rooms without
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  Speaker 1: having to go by way at the gallery. The gallery
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  Speaker 1: continued straight to the western end of the building, where
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  Speaker 1: It was lit by a high window at about two
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  Speaker 1: thirds of its length. This gallery, at a right angle,
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  Speaker 1: joined another gallery following the course of the right wing.
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  Speaker 1: The better to follow this narrative, we shall call the
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  Speaker 1: gallery leading from the stairs to the eastern window the
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  Speaker 1: right gallery, and the gallery quitting it at a right
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  Speaker 1: angle the off turning gallery. It was at the meeting
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  Speaker 1: point of the two galleries that Rouletabille had his chamber,
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  Speaker 1: adjoining that of Frederic Larsan, the door of be to
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  Speaker 1: opening on to the off turning gallery, while the doors
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  Speaker 1: of Manmoiselle Stangerson's apartment opened into the right gallery. Rouletabille
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  Speaker 1: opened the door of his room, and, after we had
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  Speaker 1: passed in, carefully drew the bolt. I had not had
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  Speaker 1: time to glance round the place in which he had
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  Speaker 1: been installed when he uttered a cry of surprise and
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  Speaker 1: pointed to a pair of eyeglasses on a side table.
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  Speaker 1: What are these doing here? He asked. I should have
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  Speaker 1: been puzzled to answer him. I wonder, he said, I
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  Speaker 1: wonder if this is what I've been searching for. I
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  Speaker 1: wonder if these are the eyeglasses from the presbytery. He
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  Speaker 1: seized them eagerly. His fingers caressing the glass. Then, looking
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  Speaker 1: at me with an expression of terror on his face,
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  Speaker 1: he murmured, oh. Oh. He repeated the exclamation again and again,
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  Speaker 1: as if his thoughts had suddenly turned his brain. He rose, and,
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  Speaker 1: putting his hand on my shoulder, laughed like one demented
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  Speaker 1: as he said, Oh, those glasses will drive me silly.
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  Speaker 1: Mathematically speaking, the thing is possible, but humanly speaking it
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  Speaker 1: is impossible. Or afterwards or afterwards. Two light knocks struck
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  Speaker 1: the door. Rouletabille opened it. A figure entered. I recognized
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  Speaker 1: the concierge whom I had seen when she was being
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  Speaker 1: taken to the pavilion for examination. I was surprised, thinking
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  Speaker 1: she was still under lock and key, this woman said
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  Speaker 1: in a very low tone in the grove of the parquet.
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  Speaker 1: Rouletabille replied thanks. The woman then left. He again turned
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  Speaker 1: to me, his look haggard, after having carefully refastened the door,
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  Speaker 1: muttering some incomprehensible phrases. If the thing is mathematically possible,
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  Speaker 1: why should it not be humanly? And if it is
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  Speaker 1: humanly possible, the matter is simply awful. I interrupted him
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  Speaker 1: in his soliloquy, Have they set the concierges at liberty.
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  Speaker 1: Then I asked, yes, he replied, I had them liberated.
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  Speaker 1: I needed people I could trust. The woman is thoroughly
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  Speaker 1: devoted to me, and her husband would lay down his
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  Speaker 1: life for me. Oh ho, I said, when will he
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  Speaker 1: have an occasion to do it this evening? For this evening,
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  Speaker 1: I expect the murderer. You expect the murderer this evening,
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  Speaker 1: then you know him. I shall know him. But I
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  Speaker 1: would be mad to affirm categorically at this moment that
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  Speaker 1: I do know him. The mathematical idea I have of
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  Speaker 1: the murderer gives results so frightful, so monstrous, that I
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  Speaker 1: hope it is still possible that I am mistaken. I
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  Speaker 1: hope so with all my heart. Five minutes ago, you
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  Speaker 1: did not know the murderer. How can you say that
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  Speaker 1: you expect him this evening, because I know that he
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  Speaker 1: must come. Rouletabille very slowly filled his pipe and lit it.
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  Speaker 1: That meant an interesting story. At that moment, we heard
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  Speaker 1: some one walking in the gallery and passing before our door.
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  Speaker 1: Rouletabille listened. The sound of the footsteps died away. In
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  Speaker 1: the distance. Is Frederic Larsan in his room. I asked,
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  Speaker 1: pointing to the partition. No, my friend answered, you went
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  Speaker 1: to Paris this morning, still on the scent of Darzac,
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  Speaker 1: who also left for Paris. That matter will turn out badly.
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  Speaker 1: I expect that Monsieur Darzac will be arrested in the
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  Speaker 1: course of the next week. The worst of it is
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  Speaker 1: that everything seems to be in league against him. Circumstances, things, people.
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  Speaker 1: Not an hour passes without bringing some new evidence against him.
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  Speaker 1: The examining magistrate is overwhelmed by it and blind. Frederic Larsan, however,
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  Speaker 1: is not a novice, I said. I thought so, said Rouletabille,
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  Speaker 1: with a slightly contemptuous turn of his lips. I fancied
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  Speaker 1: he was a much abler man. I had indeed a
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  Speaker 1: great admiration for him before I got to know his
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  Speaker 1: method of working. It's deplorable. He owes his reputation solely
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  Speaker 1: to his ability, but he lacks reasoning power. The mathematics
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  Speaker 1: of his ideas are very poor. I looked closely at
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  Speaker 1: Rouletabille and could not help smiling on hearing this boy
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  Speaker 1: of eighteen talking of a man who had proved to
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  Speaker 1: the world that he was the finest police sleuth in Europe.
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  Speaker 1: You smile, he said, you are wrong. I swear I
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  Speaker 1: will outwit him in a striking way. But I must
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  Speaker 1: make haste about it, for he has an enormous start
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  Speaker 1: on me, given him by Monsieur Robert Darzac. Who is
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  Speaker 1: this evening going to increase it? Still more? Think of it.
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  Speaker 1: Every time the murderer comes to the Chateau, Monsieur Darzac,
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  Speaker 1: by a strange fatality, absents himself and refuses to give
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  Speaker 1: any account of how he employs his time. Every time
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  Speaker 1: the assassin comes to the chateau, I cried, has he returned? Then? Yes?
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  Speaker 1: During that famous night when the strange phenomenon occurred, I
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  Speaker 1: was now going to learn about the astonishing phenomenon to
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  Speaker 1: which Rouletabille had made an illusion half an hour earlier,
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  Speaker 1: without giving me any explanation of it. But I had
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  Speaker 1: learned never to press Rouletabille in his narratives. He spoke
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  Speaker 1: when the fancy took him, and when he judged it
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  Speaker 1: to be right. He was less concerned about my curiosity
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  Speaker 1: than he was for making a complete summing up for
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  Speaker 1: himself of any important matter in which he was interested.
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  Speaker 1: At last, in short rapid phrases, he acquainted me with
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  Speaker 1: things which plunged me into a state poorting onc cleete bewilderment. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: the results of that still unknown science known as hypnotism,
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  Speaker 1: for example, were not more inexplicable than the disappearance of
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  Speaker 1: the matter of the murderer at the moment when four
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  Speaker 1: persons were within touch of him. I speak of hypnotism
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  Speaker 1: as I would of electricity, for of the nature of
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  Speaker 1: both we are ignorant, and we know little of their laws.
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  Speaker 1: I cite these examples because at the time the case
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  Speaker 1: appeared to me to be only explicable by the inexplicable,
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  Speaker 1: that is to say, by an event outside of non
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  Speaker 1: natural laws. And yet if I had had Rouletabille's brain,
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  Speaker 1: I should, like him, have had a presentiment of the
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  Speaker 1: natural explanation. For the most curious thing about all the
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  Speaker 1: mysteries of the Glandier case was the natural manner in
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  Speaker 1: which he explained them. I have among the papers that
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  Speaker 1: were sent to me by the young man after the
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  Speaker 1: affair was over, a notebook of his, in which a
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  Speaker 1: complete account is given of the phenomenon of the disappearance
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  Speaker 1: of the matter of the assassin, and the thoughts to
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  Speaker 1: which it gave rise in the mind mind of my
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  Speaker 1: young friend. It is preferable, I think, to give the
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  Speaker 1: reader this account, rather than continue to reproduce my conversation
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  Speaker 1: with Rouletabille, For I should be afraid, in a history
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  Speaker 1: of this nature to add a word that was not
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  Speaker 1: in accordance with the strictest truth. End of Chapter fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: recording by Maderra