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The Mystery of the Yellow Room Chapter 28 - In Which It Is Proved That One Does Not Always... · The Gaston Leroux Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty eight of the Mystery of the Yellow Room.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more free audiobooks all to volunteer,
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  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Stuart Bell. The
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  Speaker 1: Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston LaRue, chapter twenty eight,
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  Speaker 1: in which it is proved that one does not always
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  Speaker 1: think of everything. Great excitement prevailed when Rouletabille had finished.
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  Speaker 1: The court room became agitated with the murmurings of suppressed
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  Speaker 1: applause made Andreas Robert could from the Germans of the trial,
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  Speaker 1: and was supported in his motion by the public prosecutor himself.
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  Speaker 1: The case was adjourned the next day. Monsieur Robert Darzac
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  Speaker 1: was released on bail, while Daddy Jacques received the immediate
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  Speaker 1: benefit of a no cause for action. Search was everywhere
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  Speaker 1: made for Frederic Larsan, but in Vain Monsieur Darzac finally
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  Speaker 1: escaped the awful calamity which at one time had threatened him.
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  Speaker 1: After a visit to Mademoiselle Stangerson, he was led to
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  Speaker 1: hope that she might, by careful nursing, one day, recover
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  Speaker 1: her reason Rouletabille naturally became the man of the hour.
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  Speaker 1: On leaving the Palais de Justice, the crowd bore him aloft.
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  Speaker 1: In triumph, the press of the whole world published his
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  Speaker 1: exploits and his photograph. He who had interviewed so many
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  Speaker 1: illustrous personages, had himself become illustrious and was interviewed in
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  Speaker 1: his turn. I am glad to say that the enormous
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  Speaker 1: success in no way turned his head. We left Versailles
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  Speaker 1: together after having dined at the Dog that Smokes. I
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  Speaker 1: put a number of questions to him, which during our
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  Speaker 1: meal had been on the tip of my tongue, but
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  Speaker 1: which I had refrained from uttering, knowing that he did
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  Speaker 1: not like to talk shop while eating my friend, I
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  Speaker 1: said that last sand case is wonderful. It is worthy
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  Speaker 1: of you. He begged me to say no more, and
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  Speaker 1: humorously pretended an anxiety for me should I give way
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  Speaker 1: to silly praise of him because of a personal admiration
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  Speaker 1: for his ability. I'll come to the point, then, I said,
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  Speaker 1: not a little nettled, I am still in the darkest
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  Speaker 1: your reason for going to America when you left the Glandier,
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  Speaker 1: you had found out if I rightly understand all about
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  Speaker 1: Frederic Larsan. You had discovered the exact way he had
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  Speaker 1: attempted the murder. Quite so, And you, he said, turning
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  Speaker 1: the conversation, did you suspect nothing? Nothing? It's incredible. I
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  Speaker 1: don't see how I could have suspected anything. You took
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  Speaker 1: great pains to conceal your thoughts from me. Had you
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  Speaker 1: already suspected Larsan when you sent for me to bring
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  Speaker 1: the revolvers? Yes, I'd come to that conclusion through the
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  Speaker 1: incident of the inexplicable gallery Larsan's returned to Mazar Stangerson's room, However,
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  Speaker 1: had not then been cleared up by the eyeglasses. My
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  Speaker 1: suspicions were the outcome of my reasoning only, and the
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  Speaker 1: idea of Larsan being the murderer seemed so extraordinary that
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  Speaker 1: I resolved to wait for actual evidence before venturing to act. Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: the suspicion worried me, and I sometimes spoke to the
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  Speaker 1: detective in a way that ought to have opened your eyes.
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  Speaker 1: I spoke disparagingly of his methods, But until I found
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  Speaker 1: the eyeglasses, I could but look upon my suspicion of him.
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  Speaker 1: In the light of an absurd hypothesis. Only you can
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  Speaker 1: imagine my elation after I had explained Larsan's movements. I
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  Speaker 1: remember well rushing into my room like a madman and
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  Speaker 1: crying to you, I'll get the better of the great Fred.
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  Speaker 1: I'll get the better of him in a way that
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  Speaker 1: will make a sensation. I was then thinking of Larsan
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  Speaker 1: the murderer. It was that same evening that Darzac begged
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  Speaker 1: me to watch over Manoiselle Stangerson. I made no efforts
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  Speaker 1: until we had dined with Larsan until ten o'clock. He
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  Speaker 1: was right there before me, and I could afford to wait.
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  Speaker 1: You ought to have suspected, because when we were talking
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  Speaker 1: of the murderer's arrival, I said to you, I am
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  Speaker 1: quite sure Larsan will be here tonight. But one important
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  Speaker 1: point escaped us both. It was one which orto have
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  Speaker 1: opened our eyes to Larsan. Do you remember the bamboo cane.
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  Speaker 1: I was surprised to find Larsan had made no use
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  Speaker 1: of that evidence against Robert Darzac, had he not been
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  Speaker 1: purchased by a man whose description taled exactly with that
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  Speaker 1: of Darzac. Well just before I saw him off at
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  Speaker 1: the train after the recess during the trial, I asked
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  Speaker 1: him why he had used the cane evidence. He told
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  Speaker 1: me that he had never had any intention of doing so,
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  Speaker 1: that our discovery of it in the little inn at
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  Speaker 1: Epinay had much embarrassed him. If you will remember, he
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  Speaker 1: told us then that the cane had been given him
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  Speaker 1: in London. Why did we not immediately say to ourselves,
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  Speaker 1: Fred is lying he could not have had this cane
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  Speaker 1: in London. He was not in London. He bought it
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  Speaker 1: in Paris. Then you found out on inquiryer cassettes that
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  Speaker 1: the cane had been bought by a person dressed very
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  Speaker 1: like Robert Darzac, though as we learned later from Darzac himself,
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  Speaker 1: it was not he who had made the purchase. Coupled
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  Speaker 1: this with the fact that we already know from the
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  Speaker 1: letter at the poster Astant that there was actually a
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  Speaker 1: man in Paris who was passing as Robert Darzac, why
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  Speaker 1: did we not immediately fix on Fred himself? Of course,
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  Speaker 1: this position that the surrete was against us. But when
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  Speaker 1: he saw the evident eagerness on his part to find
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  Speaker 1: convicting evidence against Darzac, and that even the passion he
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  Speaker 1: displayed in his pursuit of the man. The lie about
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  Speaker 1: the cane should have had a new meaning for us.
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  Speaker 1: If you ask why Larsan bought the cane if he
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  Speaker 1: had no intention of manufacturing evidence against Darzac by means
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  Speaker 1: of it, the answer is quite simple. He had been
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  Speaker 1: wounded in the hand by Mademoiselle Stangerson, so that the
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  Speaker 1: cane was useful to enable him to close his hand
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  Speaker 1: in carrying it. You remember, I noticed that he always
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  Speaker 1: carried it. All these details came back to my mind
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  Speaker 1: when I had once fixed on Larsan as the criminal,
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  Speaker 1: but they were too late then to be of any
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  Speaker 1: use to me. On the evening, when he pretended to
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  Speaker 1: be drugged, I looked at his hand and saw a
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  Speaker 1: thin silk bandage covering the signs of a slight healing wound.
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  Speaker 1: Had we taken a quicker initiative at the time Larsan
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  Speaker 1: told us that lie about the cane, I am certain
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  Speaker 1: he would have gone off to avoid suspicion. All the same,
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  Speaker 1: we worried Larsan or Burmeya without our knowing it. But
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  Speaker 1: I interrupted, If Larsan had no intention of using the
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  Speaker 1: cane as evidence against Darzac, why had he made himself
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  Speaker 1: up to look like the man when he went in
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  Speaker 1: to buy it. He had not specially made up as
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  Speaker 1: Darzac to buy the cane. He had come straight to
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  Speaker 1: Cassettes immediately after he had attacked Mademoiselle Stangerson. His wound
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  Speaker 1: was troubling him, and as he was passing along the
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  Speaker 1: avenuedd' opera, the idea of the cane came to his mind,
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  Speaker 1: and he acted on it. It was then eight o'clock,
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  Speaker 1: and I, who had hit upon the very hour of
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  Speaker 1: the occurrence of the tragedy, almost convinced that Darzac was
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  Speaker 1: not the criminal, and knowing of the cane, I still
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  Speaker 1: never suspected Larsan. There are times, there are times I said,
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  Speaker 1: when the greatest intellects Rouletabille shut my mouth. I still
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  Speaker 1: continued to chide him, but finding he did not reply,
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  Speaker 1: I saw he was no longer paying any attention to
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  Speaker 1: what I was saying. I found he was fast asleep.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter twenty eight. Recording by Stuart Bell, Cambridge,
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  Speaker 1: Ucue