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The Mystery of the Yellow Room Chapter 10 - "We Shall Have to Eat Red Meat--Now" · The Gaston Leroux Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter ten 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 Gloria's Obliquey The
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  Speaker 1: Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston LaRue, Chapter ten.
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  Speaker 1: We shall have to eat red meat now. The Donjon
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  Speaker 1: Inn was of no imposing appearance. But I like these buildings,
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  Speaker 1: with their rafters blackened with age and the smoke of
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  Speaker 1: their hearths. These inns of the coaching days, crumbling erections
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  Speaker 1: that will soon exist in the memory only they belong
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  Speaker 1: to the bygone days. They are linked with history. They
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  Speaker 1: make us think of the road of those days when
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  Speaker 1: highwaymen rode. I saw at once that the Donjon Inn
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  Speaker 1: was at least two centuries old, perhaps older. Under its
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  Speaker 1: sign board over the threshold, a man with a crabbed
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  Speaker 1: looking face was standing, seemingly plunged in unpleasant thought. If
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  Speaker 1: the wrinkles on his forehead and the knitting of his
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  Speaker 1: brows were any indication. When we were close to him,
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  Speaker 1: he deigned to see us and asked us in a
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  Speaker 1: tone anything but engaging whether we wanted anything. He was,
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  Speaker 1: no doubt, the not very amiable landlord of this charming
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  Speaker 1: dwelling place. As we expressed a hope that he would
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  Speaker 1: be good enough to furnish us with a breakfast, he
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  Speaker 1: assured us that he had no provisions regarding us. As
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  Speaker 1: he said this with a look that was unmistakably suspicious,
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  Speaker 1: you may take us in Rouletabille said to him, we're
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  Speaker 1: not policemen. I'm not afraid of the police. I'm not
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  Speaker 1: afraid of any one, replied the man. I had made
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  Speaker 1: my friend understand by a sign that we should do
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  Speaker 1: better not to insist. But being determined to enter the inn,
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  Speaker 1: he slipped by the man on the doorstep and was
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  Speaker 1: in the common room. Come on, he said, it is
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  Speaker 1: very comfortable here. A good fire was blazing in the chimney,
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  Speaker 1: and we held our hands to the warmth. It sent out.
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  Speaker 1: It was a morning in which the approach of winter
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  Speaker 1: was unmistakable. The room was a tolerably large one, furnished
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  Speaker 1: with two heavy tables, some stools, a counter decorated with
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  Speaker 1: rows of bottles of syrup and alcohol. Three windows looked
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  Speaker 1: out on to the road. A colored advertisement lauded the
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  Speaker 1: many merits of a new Vermouth. On the mantelpiece was
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  Speaker 1: arrayed the innkeeper's collection of figured earthenware pots and stone jugs.
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  Speaker 1: That's a fine fire for roasting a chicken, said Rouletabille.
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  Speaker 1: We have no chicken, not even a wretched rabbit, said
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  Speaker 1: the landlord. I know, said my friend slowly. I know
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  Speaker 1: we shall have to eat red meat. Now I confess
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  Speaker 1: I did not, in the LEAs least understand what Rouletabille
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  Speaker 1: meant by what he had said. But the landlord, as
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  Speaker 1: soon as he heard the words, uttered an oath, which
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  Speaker 1: he at once stifled, and placed himself at our orders,
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  Speaker 1: as obediently as Monsieur Robert Darzac had done when he
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  Speaker 1: heard Rouletabille's prophetic sentence. The presbytery has lost nothing of
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  Speaker 1: its charm, nor the garden its brightness. Certainly, my friend
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  Speaker 1: knew how to make people understand him by the use
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  Speaker 1: of wholly incomprehensible phrases. I observed as much to him,
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  Speaker 1: but he merely smiled. I should have proposed that he
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  Speaker 1: give me some explanation, but he put a finger to
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  Speaker 1: his lips, which evidently signified that he had not only
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  Speaker 1: determined not to speak, but also enjoined silence on my part. Meantime,
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  Speaker 1: the man had pushed open a little side door and
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  Speaker 1: called to somebody to bring him half a dozen eggs
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  Speaker 1: and a piece of beefsteak. The commission was quickly executed
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  Speaker 1: by a strongly built young woman with beautiful blonde hair
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  Speaker 1: and large handsome eyes, who regarded us with curiosity. The
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  Speaker 1: innkeeper said to her roughly, get out, and if the
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  Speaker 1: green man comes, don't let me see him. She disappeared
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  Speaker 1: a Rouletabille took the eggs which had been brought to
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  Speaker 1: him in a bowl, and the meat, which was on
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  Speaker 1: a dish, placed all carefully beside him. In the chimney,
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  Speaker 1: unhooked a frying pan and a gridiron, and began to
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  Speaker 1: beat up our omelet, before proceeding to grill our beefsteak.
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  Speaker 1: He then ordered two bottles of cider, and seemed to
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  Speaker 1: take as little notice of our host as our host
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  Speaker 1: did of him. The landlord let us do our own
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  Speaker 1: cooking and set our table near one of the windows.
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  Speaker 1: Suddenly I heard him mutter, ah, there he is. His
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  Speaker 1: face had changed, expressing fierce hatred. He went and glued
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  Speaker 1: himself to one of the windows watching the road. There
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  Speaker 1: was no need for me to draw Rouletabille's attention. He
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  Speaker 1: had already left our omelet and had joined the landlord
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  Speaker 1: at the window. I went with him. A man dressed
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  Speaker 1: entirely in green velvet, his head covered with a huntsman's
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  Speaker 1: cap of the same color, was advancing leisurely, lighting a
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  Speaker 1: pipe as he walked. He carried a fowling piece slung
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  Speaker 1: at his back. His movements displayed an almost aristocratic ease.
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  Speaker 1: He wore eye glasses and appeared to be about five
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  Speaker 1: and forty years of age. His hair, as well as
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  Speaker 1: his mustache, were salt gray. He was remarkably handsome. As
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  Speaker 1: he passed near the inn, he hesitated, as if asking
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  Speaker 1: himself whether or no he should enter it, gave a
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  Speaker 1: glance towards us, took a few whiffs at his pipe,
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  Speaker 1: and then resumed his walk at the same nonchalant pace.
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  Speaker 1: Rouletabille and I looked at our host. His flashing eyes,
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  Speaker 1: his clenched hands, his trembling lips told us of the
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  Speaker 1: tumultuous feelings by which he was being agitated. He has
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  Speaker 1: done well not to come in here to day, he hissed,
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  Speaker 1: who is that man, asked Rouletabille, returning to his omelet.
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  Speaker 1: The green man growled the innkeeper. Don't you know him? Then,
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  Speaker 1: all the better for you. He is not an acquaintance
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  Speaker 1: to make well. He is Monsieur Stangerson's forest keeper. You
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  Speaker 1: don't like him very much, asked the reporter, pouring his
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  Speaker 1: omelet into the frying pan. Nobody likes him, Monsieur. He's
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  Speaker 1: an upstart who must once have had a fortune of
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  Speaker 1: his own, and he forgives nobody, because in order to
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  Speaker 1: live he has been compelled to become a servant. A
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  Speaker 1: keeper is as much a servant as any other, isn't he?
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  Speaker 1: Upon my word? One would say that he is the
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  Speaker 1: master of the glandier, and that all the land and
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  Speaker 1: woods belong to him. He'll not let a poor creature
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  Speaker 1: eat a morsel of bread on the grass his grass
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  Speaker 1: does He often come here too often, But I've made
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  Speaker 1: him understand that his face doesn't please me, And for
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  Speaker 1: a month past he hasn't been here. The donjon Inn
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  Speaker 1: has never existed for him. He hasn't had time, been
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  Speaker 1: too much engaged in paying court to the landlady of
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  Speaker 1: the Three Lilies at Saint Michel a bad fellow. There
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  Speaker 1: isn't an honest man who can bear him. Why the
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  Speaker 1: concierges of the chateau would turn their eyes away from
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  Speaker 1: a picture of him. The concierges of the chateau are
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  Speaker 1: honest people, then, yes, they are as true as my
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  Speaker 1: name's Matthew Monsieur. I believe them to be honest. Yet
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  Speaker 1: they've been arrested. What does that prove? But I don't
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  Speaker 1: want to mix myself up in other people's affairs. And
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  Speaker 1: what do you think of the murder of the murder
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  Speaker 1: of poor Mademoiselle Stangerson, a good girl, much loved everywhere
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  Speaker 1: in the country. That's what I think of it, and
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  Speaker 1: many things besides. But that's nobody's business, not even mine,
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  Speaker 1: insisted Rouletabille. The innkeeper looked at him sideways and said, gruffly,
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  Speaker 1: not even yours. The omelet Ready. We sat down at
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  Speaker 1: table and were silently eating when the door was pushed,
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  Speaker 1: and an old woman dressed in rags, leaning on a stick,
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  Speaker 1: her head doddering, her white hair hanging loosely over her
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  Speaker 1: wrinkled forehead, appeared on the threshold. Ah, there you are,
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  Speaker 1: mother Angenoux. It's long since we saw you last, said
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  Speaker 1: our host. I have been ill, very ill, very nearly dying,
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  Speaker 1: said the old woman, If ever you should have any
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  Speaker 1: scraps with a bet du bon dieu, And she entered,
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  Speaker 1: followed by a cat larger than any I had ever
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  Speaker 1: believed could exist. The beast looked at us and gave
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  Speaker 1: so hopeless a meal that I shuddered. I had never
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  Speaker 1: heard so lugubrious a cry, as if drawn by the
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  Speaker 1: cat's cry. A man followed the old woman in. It
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  Speaker 1: was the green man. He saluted by raising his hand
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  Speaker 1: to his cap, and seated himself at a table near
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  Speaker 1: to ours. A glass of cider, Daddy Mathieu, he said.
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  Speaker 1: As the green man entered. Daddy Mathieu had started violently,
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  Speaker 1: but visibly mastering himself. He said, I've no more cider.
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  Speaker 1: I served the last bottles to these gentlemen. Then give
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  Speaker 1: me a glass of white wine, said the green Man,
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  Speaker 1: without showing the least surprise. I've no more white wine,
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  Speaker 1: no more anything, said Daddy Mathieu, surlily. How is Madame
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  Speaker 1: Mathieu quite well? Thank you so. The young woman with
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  Speaker 1: the large tender eyes whom we had just seen, was
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  Speaker 1: the wife of this repugnant and brutal rustic whose jealousy
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  Speaker 1: seemed to emphasize his physical ugliness. Slamming the door behind him,
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  Speaker 1: the innkeeper left the room. Mother Angenoux was still standing,
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  Speaker 1: leaning on her stick, the cat at her feet. You've
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  Speaker 1: been ill, Mother Angenoux, Is that why we have not
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  Speaker 1: seen you for the last week, asked the green man. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: monsieur keeper. I have been able to get up but
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  Speaker 1: three times to go to pray to San Jean Vieve,
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  Speaker 1: our good patron, And the rest of the time I
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  Speaker 1: have been lying on my bed. There was no one
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  Speaker 1: to care for me but the Bete du bon dieu.
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  Speaker 1: Did she not leave you neither by day nor by night?
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  Speaker 1: Are you sure of that? As I am of paradise?
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  Speaker 1: Then how was it, Madame Angenoux, that all through the
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  Speaker 1: night of the murder, nothing but the cry of the
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  Speaker 1: Bete du bon dieu was heard. Mother Angenoux planted herself
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  Speaker 1: in front of the forest keeper and struck the floor
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  Speaker 1: with her stick. I don't know anything about it, she said,
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  Speaker 1: But shall I tell you something? There are no two
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  Speaker 1: cats in the world that cry like that. Well, on
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  Speaker 1: the night of the murder, I also heard the cry
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  Speaker 1: of the bete du bon dieu outside, and yet she
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  Speaker 1: was on my knees and did not mew once. I
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  Speaker 1: swear I crossed myself when I heard that, as if
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  Speaker 1: I had heard the devil. I looked at the keeper
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  Speaker 1: when he put the last question, and I am much
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  Speaker 1: mistaken if I did not detect an evil smile on
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  Speaker 1: his lips. At that moment, the noise of loud quarreling
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  Speaker 1: reached us. We even thought we heard a dull sound
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  Speaker 1: of blows, as if some one was being beaten. The
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  Speaker 1: green man quickly rose and hurried to the door by
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  Speaker 1: the side of the fireplace, but it was opened by
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  Speaker 1: the landlord, who appeared and said to the keeper, don't
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  Speaker 1: alarm yourself, monsieur, it is my wife. She has the toothache,
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  Speaker 1: and he laughed, Here, mother Angenoux, here are some scraps
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  Speaker 1: for your cat. He held out a packet to the
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  Speaker 1: old woman, who took it eagerly and went out by
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  Speaker 1: the door, closely followed by her cat. Then you won't
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  Speaker 1: serve me, asked the green man. Daddy Mathieu's face was
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  Speaker 1: placid and no longer retained its expression of hatred. I've
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  Speaker 1: nothing for you, nothing for you. Take yourself off. The
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  Speaker 1: green man quietly refilled his pipe, lit it, bowed to us,
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  Speaker 1: and went out. No sooner was you the threshold. Then
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  Speaker 1: Daddy Mathieu slammed the door after him, and turning towards us,
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  Speaker 1: with eyes bloodshot and frothing at the mouth, he hissed
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  Speaker 1: to us, shaking his clenched fist at the door he
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  Speaker 1: had just shut on the man, he evidently hated, I
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  Speaker 1: don't know who you are who tell me we shall
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  Speaker 1: have to eat red meat now, but if it will
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  Speaker 1: interest you to know it, that man is the murderer,
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  Speaker 1: with which words Daddy Mathieu immediately left us. Rouletabille returned
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  Speaker 1: towards the fireplace and said, now we'll grill our steak.
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  Speaker 1: How do you like the cider? It's a little tart,
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  Speaker 1: but I like it. We saw no more of Daddy
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  Speaker 1: Mathieu that day, and absolute silence reigned in the inn
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  Speaker 1: when we left it. After placing five francs on the
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  Speaker 1: table in payment for our feast, Rouletabille at once set
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  Speaker 1: off on a three mile walk round Professor Stangerson's estate.
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  Speaker 1: He halted for some ten minutes at the corner of
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  Speaker 1: a narrow road black with soot, near to some charcoal
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  Speaker 1: burner's huts in the forest of San Jean Vieve, which
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  Speaker 1: touches on the road from Epinay to Corbeil, to tell
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  Speaker 1: me that the murderer had certainly passed that way before
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  Speaker 1: entering the grounds and concealing himself in the little clump
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  Speaker 1: of trees. You don't think then that the keeper knows
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  Speaker 1: anything of it, I asked. We shall see that later,
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  Speaker 1: he replied. For the present, I'm not interested in what
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  Speaker 1: the landlord said about the man. The landlord hates him.
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  Speaker 1: I didn't take you to breakfast at the Donjon Inn
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  Speaker 1: for the sake of the green man. Then Rouletabille, with
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  Speaker 1: great precaution, glided, followed by me, towards the little building, which,
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  Speaker 1: standing near the park gate, served for the home of
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  Speaker 1: the concierges who had been arrested that morning. With the
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  Speaker 1: skill of an acrobat, he got into the lodge by
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  Speaker 1: an upper window which had been left open, and returned
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  Speaker 1: ten minutes later. He said only ah, a word which
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  Speaker 1: in his mouth signified many things. We were about to
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  Speaker 1: take the road leading to the chateau, when a considerable
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  Speaker 1: stir at the park gate attracted our attention. A carriage
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  Speaker 1: had arrived, and some people had come out from the
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  Speaker 1: chateau to meet it. Rouletabille pointed out to me a
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  Speaker 1: gentleman who descended from it. That's the Chief of the Sourte.
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  Speaker 1: He said. Now we shall see what Frederic Larsan has
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  Speaker 1: up his sleeve, and whether he is so much cleverer
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  Speaker 1: than anybody else. The carriage of the Chief of the
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  Speaker 1: Sourte was followed by three other vehicles containing reporters who
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  Speaker 1: were also desirous of entering the park, But two gendarmes
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  Speaker 1: stationed at the gate had evidently received orders to refuse
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  Speaker 1: admission to anybody. The Chief of the Sourte calmed their
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  Speaker 1: impatience by undertaking to furnish to the press that evening
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  Speaker 1: all the information he could give that would not interfere
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  Speaker 1: with the judicial inquiry. End of Chapter ten. Recording by
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  Speaker 1: Gloria's Obliquey Floral Park, New York,