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The Mystery of the Yellow Room Chapter 17 - The Inexplicable Gallery · The Gaston Leroux Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen 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 r G recording by Madera. The
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  Speaker 1: Mystery and the Yellow Room by Gaston LaRue, Chapter seventeen,
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  Speaker 1: The Inexplicable Gallery. Mademoiselle Stangerson appeared at the door of
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  Speaker 1: her ante room, continues Rouletabille's note book. We were near
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  Speaker 1: her door, in the gallery where this incredible phenomenon had
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  Speaker 1: taken place. There are moments when one feels as if
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  Speaker 1: one's brain were about to burst, a bullet in the head,
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  Speaker 1: a fracture of the skull, the seat of reason shattered.
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  Speaker 1: With only these can I compare the sensation which exhausted
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  Speaker 1: and left me void of sense. Happily, Mademoiselle Stangerson appeared
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  Speaker 1: on the threshold of her ante room. I saw her,
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  Speaker 1: and that helped to relieve my chaotic state of mind.
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  Speaker 1: I breathed her, I inhaled the perfume of the lady
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  Speaker 1: in black, whom I should never see again. I would
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  Speaker 1: have given ten years of my life, half my life
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  Speaker 1: to see once more the Lady in black. Alas I
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  Speaker 1: no more meet her, but from time to time. And yet,
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  Speaker 1: and yet, how the memory of that perfume, felt by
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  Speaker 1: me alone, carries me back to the days of my childhood.
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  Speaker 1: It was this sharp reminder from my beloved perfume of
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  Speaker 1: the Lady in black, which made me go to her,
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  Speaker 1: dressed wholly in white and so pale, so pale, and
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  Speaker 1: so beautiful, on the threshold of the inexplicable gallery, her
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  Speaker 1: beautiful golden hair gathered into a knot on the back
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  Speaker 1: of her neck, left visible the red star on her temple,
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  Speaker 1: which had so nearly been the cause of her death.
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  Speaker 1: When I first got on the right track of the
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  Speaker 1: mystery of this case, I had imagined that on the
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  Speaker 1: night of the tragedy in the Yellow Room, Mademoiselle Stangerson
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  Speaker 1: had worn her having bands. But then how could I
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  Speaker 1: have imagined otherwise when I had not been in the
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  Speaker 1: Yellow Room. When I wrote these lines, Joseph Rouletabille was
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  Speaker 1: eighteen years of age, and he spoke of his youth.
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  Speaker 1: I have kept the text of my friend, but I
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  Speaker 1: informed the reader here that the episode of the mystery
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  Speaker 1: of the Yellow Room has no connection with that of
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  Speaker 1: the perfume of the lady in black. It is not
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  Speaker 1: my fault if in the document which I have cited,
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  Speaker 1: Rouletabille thought fit to refer to his childhood. But now,
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  Speaker 1: since the occurrence of the inexplicable gallery, I did not
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  Speaker 1: reason at all. I stood there, stupid before the apparition,
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  Speaker 1: so pale and so beautiful of Mademoiselle Stangerson. She was
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  Speaker 1: glad in a dressing gown of dreamy white. One might
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  Speaker 1: have taken her to be a ghost, a lovely phantom.
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  Speaker 1: Her father took her in his arms and kissed her passionately,
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  Speaker 1: as if he had recovered her after being long lost
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  Speaker 1: to him. I dared not question her. He drew her
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  Speaker 1: into the room, and we followed them, for we had
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  Speaker 1: to know. The door of the boudoir was open, the
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  Speaker 1: terrified faces of the two nurses crane towards us. Mademoiselle
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  Speaker 1: Stangerson inquired the meaning of all the disturbance that she
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  Speaker 1: was not in her own rooms, quite easily explained, quite easily,
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  Speaker 1: she had a fancy not to sleep that night in
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  Speaker 1: her chamber, but in the boudoir, with her nurses locking
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  Speaker 1: the door on them. Since the night of the crime,
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  Speaker 1: she had experienced feelings of terror, and fears came over
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  Speaker 1: her that are easily to be comprehended. But who could
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  Speaker 1: imagine that on that particular night, when he was to come,
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  Speaker 1: she would, by a mere chance determine to shut herself
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  Speaker 1: in with her women. Who would think that she would
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  Speaker 1: act contrary to her father's wish to sleep in the
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  Speaker 1: drawing room? Who could believe that the letter which had
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  Speaker 1: so recently been on the table in her room would
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  Speaker 1: no longer be there? He who could understand all this
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  Speaker 1: would have to assume that Mademoiselle Stangerson knew that the
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  Speaker 1: murderer was coming. She could not prevent his coming again,
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  Speaker 1: unknown to her father, unknown to all, but to Monsieur
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  Speaker 1: Robert Darzac, for he must know it now. Perhaps he
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  Speaker 1: had known it before? Did he remember that phrase in
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  Speaker 1: the Elissie Garden? Must I commit a crime then? To
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  Speaker 1: win you? Against whom the crime? If not against the
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  Speaker 1: obstacle against the murderer? Ah, I would kill him with
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  Speaker 1: my own hand, And I replied, you have not answered
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  Speaker 1: my question. That was the very truth. In truth. In truth,
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur Darzac knew the murderer so well that while wishing
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  Speaker 1: to kill him himself. He was afraid I should find him.
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  Speaker 1: There could be but two reasons why he had assisted
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  Speaker 1: me in my investigation. First because I forced him to
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  Speaker 1: do it, and second because she would be the better protected.
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  Speaker 1: I am in the chamber, her room. I look at
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  Speaker 1: her also in the place where the letter had just
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  Speaker 1: now been. She has possessed herself of it. It was
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  Speaker 1: evidently intended for her. Evidently how she trembles, trembles at
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  Speaker 1: the strange story. Her father is telling her of the
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  Speaker 1: presence of the murderer and her chamber, and of the pursuit.
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  Speaker 1: But it is plainly to be seen that she is
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  Speaker 1: not wholly satisfied by the assurance given her until she
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  Speaker 1: has been told that the murderer, by some incomprehensible means,
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  Speaker 1: has been able to elude us. Then follows a silence.
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  Speaker 1: What a silence we are all there looking at her,
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  Speaker 1: her father, Larsan, Daddy, Jacques, and I. What were we
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  Speaker 1: all thinking of in the silence? After the events of
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  Speaker 1: that night, of the mystery, of the inexplicable gallery, of
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  Speaker 1: the prodigious fact of the presence of the murderer in
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  Speaker 1: her room? It seemed to me that all our thoughts
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  Speaker 1: might have been translated into the words which were addressed
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  Speaker 1: to her. You, who know of this mystery, explain it
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  Speaker 1: to us, and we shall perhaps be able to save you.
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  Speaker 1: How I longed to save her for herself and from
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  Speaker 1: the other. It brought the tears to my eyes. She
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  Speaker 1: is there, shedding about her the perfume of the lady
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  Speaker 1: in black. At last I see her in the silence
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  Speaker 1: of her chamber. Since the fatal hour of the mystery
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  Speaker 1: of the Yellow Room, we have hung about this invisible
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  Speaker 1: and silent woman to learn what she knows. Our desires,
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  Speaker 1: our wish to know, must be a torment to her.
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  Speaker 1: Who can tell that should we learn the secret of
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  Speaker 1: her mystery, it would not precipitate a tragedy more terrible
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  Speaker 1: than that which had already been enacted here. Who can tell?
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  Speaker 1: If it might not mean her death? Yet it had
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  Speaker 1: brought her close to death, and we still knew nothing,
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  Speaker 1: Or rather, there are some of us who know nothing,
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  Speaker 1: But I, if I knew who, I should know all
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  Speaker 1: who who? Not knowing who? I must remain silent out
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  Speaker 1: of pity for her, For there is no doubt that
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  Speaker 1: she knows how he escaped from the yellow room, and
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  Speaker 1: yet she keeps the secret. When I know who, I
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  Speaker 1: will speak to him. To him she looked at us
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  Speaker 1: now with a far away look in her eyes, as
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  Speaker 1: if we were not in the chamber. Monsieur Stangerson broke
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  Speaker 1: the silence. He declared that henceforth he would no more
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  Speaker 1: absent himself from his daughter's apartments. She tried to oppose
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  Speaker 1: him in vain. He adhered firmly to his purpose. He
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  Speaker 1: would install himself there this very night, he said, solely
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  Speaker 1: concerned for the health of his daughter, he reproached her
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  Speaker 1: for having left her bed. Then he suddenly began talking
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  Speaker 1: to her as if she were a little child. He
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  Speaker 1: smiled at her, and seemed not to know either what
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  Speaker 1: he said or what he did. The illustrious professor had
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  Speaker 1: lost his head. Mademoiselle Stangerson, in a tone of tender distress, said, father, father, daddy,
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  Speaker 1: Jacques blows his nose, and Frederic Larsan himself is obliged
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  Speaker 1: to turn away to hide his emotion. For myself, I
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  Speaker 1: am able neither to think or feel. I felt an
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  Speaker 1: infinite contempt for myself. It was the first time that
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  Speaker 1: Frederic Larsan, like myself found himself face to face with
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  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle Stangerson since the attack in the Yellow Room. Like me,
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  Speaker 1: he had insisted on being allowed to question the unhappy lady.
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  Speaker 1: But he had not any more than I had been
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  Speaker 1: permitted to him. As to me, the same answer had
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  Speaker 1: always been given. Mademoiselle Stangerson was too weak to receive us.
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  Speaker 1: The questionings of the examining magistrate had over fatigued her.
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  Speaker 1: It was evidently intended not to give us any assistance
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  Speaker 1: in our researches. I was not surprised, but Frederic Larsan
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  Speaker 1: had always resented this conduct. It is true that he
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  Speaker 1: and I had a totally different theory of the crime.
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  Speaker 1: I still catch myself repeating from the depths of my heart,
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  Speaker 1: save her, Save her, without his speaking, Who is he
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  Speaker 1: the murderer? Take him and shut his mouth? But Monsieur
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  Speaker 1: Darzac made it clear that in order to shut his
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  Speaker 1: mouth he must be killed. Have I the right to
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  Speaker 1: kill Mademoiselle Stangerson's murderer? No? I had not. But let
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  Speaker 1: him only give me the chance. Let me find out
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  Speaker 1: whether he is really a creature of flesh and blood.
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  Speaker 1: Let me see his dead body, since it cannot be
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  Speaker 1: taken alive. If I could but make this woman, who
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  Speaker 1: does not even look at us, understand she is absorbed
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  Speaker 1: by her fears and by her father's distress of mind,
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  Speaker 1: and I can do nothing to save her. Yes, I
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  Speaker 1: will go to work once more and accomplish wonders. I
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  Speaker 1: moved towards her. I would speak to her. I would
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  Speaker 1: entreat her to have confidence in me. I would, in
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  Speaker 1: a word, make her understand she alone, that I know
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  Speaker 1: how the murderer escaped from the yellow room, that I
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  Speaker 1: have guessed the motives for her secrecy, and that I
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  Speaker 1: pity her with all my heart. But by her gestures,
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  Speaker 1: she begged us to leave her alone, expressing weariness and
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  Speaker 1: the need for immediate rest, Monsieur Stangerson asked us to
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  Speaker 1: go back to our rooms and thanked us. Frederic Larsan
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  Speaker 1: and I bowed to him, and followed by Daddy Jacques,
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  Speaker 1: we regained the gallery. I heard Larsan murmur strange, strange.
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  Speaker 1: He made a sign to me to go with him
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  Speaker 1: into his room. On the threshold, he turned towards Daddy Jacques,
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  Speaker 1: did you see him? Distinctly, he asked who the man saw?
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  Speaker 1: I am? Why he had a big red beard and
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  Speaker 1: red hair. That's how he appeared to me, I said,
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  Speaker 1: And to me said Larsan the Great. Fred and I
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  Speaker 1: were alone in his chamber now to talk over this thing.
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  Speaker 1: We talked for an hour, turning the matter over and
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  Speaker 1: viewing it from every side, From the questions put by him,
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  Speaker 1: from the explanation which he gives me, it is clear
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  Speaker 1: to me that in spite of all our senses, he
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  Speaker 1: is persuaded that the man disappeared by some secret passage
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  Speaker 1: in the chateau known to him alone. He knows the chateau,
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  Speaker 1: he said to me. He knows it well. He is
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  Speaker 1: rather tall man, well built. I suggested, he is as
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  Speaker 1: tall as he wants to be. Murmured Fred, I understand,
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  Speaker 1: I said, but how do you account for his red
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  Speaker 1: hair and beard? Too much beard? Too much hair? False,
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  Speaker 1: says Fred. That's easily said. You are always thinking of
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  Speaker 1: Robert Darzac. Can't you get rid of that idea. I
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  Speaker 1: am certain that he is innocent, so much the better,
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  Speaker 1: I hope so. But everything condemns him. Did you not
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  Speaker 1: the marks on the carpet, Come and look at them.
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  Speaker 1: I have seen them. They are the marks of the
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  Speaker 1: neat boots the same as those we saw on the
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  Speaker 1: border of the lake. Can you deny that they belonged
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  Speaker 1: to Robert Darzac? Of course, one may be mistaken. Have
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  Speaker 1: you noticed that those footprints only go in one direction,
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  Speaker 1: that there are no returned marks. When the man came
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  Speaker 1: from the chamber, pursued by all of us, his footsteps
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  Speaker 1: left no traces behind them. He had perhaps been in
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  Speaker 1: the chamber for hours. The mud from his boots had dried,
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  Speaker 1: and he moved with such rapidity on the points of
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  Speaker 1: his toes. We saw him running, but we did not
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  Speaker 1: hear his steps. I suddenly put an end to this
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  Speaker 1: idle chatter, void of any logic, and made a sign
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  Speaker 1: to Larsan to listen there below. Some one is shutting
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  Speaker 1: at all. I rise. Larsan follows me. We descend to
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  Speaker 1: the ground floor of the chateau. I lead him to
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  Speaker 1: the little semi circular room under the terrace, beneath the
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  Speaker 1: window of the off turning gallery. I point to the
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  Speaker 1: door now closed open a short time before, under which
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  Speaker 1: a shaft of light is the forest keeper, says Fred.
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  Speaker 1: Come on, I whisper prepared. I know not why to
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  Speaker 1: believe that the keeper is the guilty man, I go
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  Speaker 1: to the door and rap smartly on it. Some might
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  Speaker 1: think that we were rather late in thinking of the keeper,
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  Speaker 1: since our first business, having found that the murderer had
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  Speaker 1: escaped us in the gallery, ought to have been to
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  Speaker 1: search everywhere else around the chateau in the park. Had
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  Speaker 1: this criticism been made at the time, we could only
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  Speaker 1: have answered that the assassin had disappeared from the gallery
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  Speaker 1: in such a way that we thought he was no
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  Speaker 1: longer anywhere. He had eluded us when we all had
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  Speaker 1: our hands stretched out ready to seize him, when we
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  Speaker 1: were almost touching him. We had no longer any ground
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  Speaker 1: for hoping that we could clear up the mystery of
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  Speaker 1: that night. As soon as I rapped at the door,
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  Speaker 1: it was opened, and the keeper asked us quietly what
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  Speaker 1: we wanted. He was undressed and preparing to go to bed.
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  Speaker 1: The bed had not yet been disturbed. We entered, and I,
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  Speaker 1: affected surprise, not gone to bed yet. No, he replied roughly.
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  Speaker 1: I'd been making a round of the part in the woods.
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  Speaker 1: I'm only just back on sleepy good night listen, I said.
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  Speaker 1: An hour or so ago, there was a ladder close
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  Speaker 1: by your window. What ladder? I did not see any ladder.
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  Speaker 1: Good night, and he simply put us out of the room.
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  Speaker 1: When we were outside, I looked at Larsan. His face
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  Speaker 1: was impenetrable. Well, I said, well, he repeated, Does that
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  Speaker 1: open out any new view to you? There was no
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  Speaker 1: mistaking Larsan's bad temper. On re entering the chateau, I
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  Speaker 1: heard him mutter it would be strange, very strange, if
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  Speaker 1: I had deceived myself. On that point, he seemed to
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  Speaker 1: be talking to me rather than to himself. He added,
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  Speaker 1: In any case, we shall soon know what to think.
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  Speaker 1: The morning will bring light with it. End of Chapter seventeen.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Maderra in Seattle, Washington,