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The Mystery of the Yellow Room Chapter 2 - In Which Joseph Rouletabille Appears for the First Time · The Gaston Leroux Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter two 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 audiobooks or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Stuart Bell The Mystery
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  Speaker 1: of the Yellow Room by Gaston LaRue, Chapter two, in
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  Speaker 1: which Joseph Rouletabille appears for the first time. I remember,
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  Speaker 1: as well as if it occurred yesterday, the entry of
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  Speaker 1: young Rouletabille into my bedroom that morning. It was about
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  Speaker 1: eight o'clock and I was still in bed reading the
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  Speaker 1: article in the matter relative to the Glandier crime. But
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  Speaker 1: before going further, it's time that I present my friend
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  Speaker 1: to the reader. I first knew Joseph Rouletabille when he
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  Speaker 1: was a young reporter. At that time I was a
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  Speaker 1: beginner at the bar, and often met him in the
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  Speaker 1: corridors of examining magistrates when I had gone to get
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  Speaker 1: a permit to communicate for the prison of Mazas or
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  Speaker 1: for Saint Lazare. He had, as they say, a good nut.
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  Speaker 1: He seemed to have taken his head round as a
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  Speaker 1: bullet out of a box of marbles. And it's from
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  Speaker 1: that I think that his comrades of the press, all
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  Speaker 1: determined billiard players, had given him that nickname, which was
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  Speaker 1: to stick to him and be made illustrious by him.
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  Speaker 1: He was always as red as a tomato, now gay
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  Speaker 1: as a lark, now grave as a judge. How while
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  Speaker 1: still so young. He was only sixteen and a half
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  Speaker 1: years old when I saw him for the first time.
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  Speaker 1: Had he already won his way on the press? That
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  Speaker 1: was what everybody who came into contact with him might
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  Speaker 1: have asked, if they had not known his history. At
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  Speaker 1: the time of the affair of the woman cut in
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  Speaker 1: pieces in the row Oberscumph, another forgotten story, he had
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  Speaker 1: taken to one of the editors of the Epoch, a
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  Speaker 1: paper then rivaling the matin for him from a the
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  Speaker 1: left foot which was missing from the basket in which
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  Speaker 1: the gruesome remains were discovered. For this left foot, the
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  Speaker 1: police had been vainly searching for a week, and young
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  Speaker 1: Rouletabille had found it in a drain where nobody had
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  Speaker 1: thought of looking for it. To do that, he had
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  Speaker 1: dressed himself as an extra sewer man, one of a
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  Speaker 1: number engaged by the administration of the City of Paris,
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  Speaker 1: owing to an overflow of the Seine. When the editor
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  Speaker 1: in chief was in possession of the precious foot and
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  Speaker 1: informed as to the train of intelligent deductions the boy
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  Speaker 1: had been led to make, he was divided between the
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  Speaker 1: admiration he felt for such detective cunning in the brain
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  Speaker 1: of a lad of sixteen years, and delight at being
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  Speaker 1: able to exhibit in the mool window of his paper
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  Speaker 1: the left foot of the rue oberskunph. This foot, he cried,
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  Speaker 1: will make a great headline. Then, when he had confided
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  Speaker 1: the gruesome packet to the medical lawyer attached to the journal,
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  Speaker 1: he asked the lad, who was shortly to become famous,
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  Speaker 1: says Rouletabille, what he would expect to earn as a
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  Speaker 1: general reporter on the apark two hundred francs a month.
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  Speaker 1: The youngster replied modestly, hardly able to breathe in surprise
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  Speaker 1: at the proposal. You shall have two hundred and fifty,
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  Speaker 1: said the editor in chief. Only you must tell everybody
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  Speaker 1: that you have been engaged on the paper for a month.
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  Speaker 1: Let it be quite understood that it was not you,
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  Speaker 1: but the epoch that discovered the left foot of the
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  Speaker 1: rue Oberskamf. Here, my young friend, the man is nothing,
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  Speaker 1: the paper everything. Having said this, he begged the new
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  Speaker 1: reporter to retire, But before the youth had reached the door,
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  Speaker 1: he called him back to ask his name. The other replied, Joseph,
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  Speaker 1: Joseph Seene. That's not a name, said the editor in chief.
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  Speaker 1: But since you will not be required to sign what
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  Speaker 1: you write, it is of no consequence. The boy faced
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  Speaker 1: reporter speedily made himself many friends, for he was serviceable
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  Speaker 1: and gifted with a good humor that enchanted the most
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  Speaker 1: severe tempered and disarmed the most zealous of his companions.
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  Speaker 1: At the bar cafe, where the reporters assembled before going
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  Speaker 1: to any of the courts or to the prefecture in
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  Speaker 1: search of their news of crime, he began to win
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  Speaker 1: a reputation as an unraveler of intricate and obscure affairs,
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  Speaker 1: which found its way to the office of the Chief
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  Speaker 1: of the Surete. When the case was worth the trouble
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  Speaker 1: and Rouletabille he had already been given his nickname had
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  Speaker 1: been started on the scent by his editor in chief.
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  Speaker 1: He often got the better of the most famous detective.
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  Speaker 1: It was at the bar cafe that I became intimately
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  Speaker 1: acquainted with him criminal lawyers and journalists are not enemies.
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  Speaker 1: The former need advertisement and the latter information. We chatted together,
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  Speaker 1: and I soon warmed towards him. His intelligence was so
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  Speaker 1: keen and so original, and he had a quality of
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  Speaker 1: thoughts such as I have never found in any other person.
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  Speaker 1: Some time after this, I was put in charge of
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  Speaker 1: the law news of the Cree de Boulevard. My entry
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  Speaker 1: into journalism could not but strengthen the ties which united
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  Speaker 1: me to Rouletabille. After a while, my new friend being
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  Speaker 1: allowed to carry out an idea of a judicial correspondence
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  Speaker 1: column which he was allowed to sign business in the epoch,
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  Speaker 1: I was often able to furnish him with the legal
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  Speaker 1: information of which he stood in need. Nearly two years
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  Speaker 1: passed in this way, and the better I knew him,
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  Speaker 1: the more I learned to love him, For, in spite
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  Speaker 1: of his careless extravagance, I had discovered in him, what was,
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  Speaker 1: considering his age, an extraordinary seriousness of mind. Accustomed as
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  Speaker 1: I was to seeing him gay, and indeed often too gay,
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  Speaker 1: I would many times find him plunged in the deepest melancholy.
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  Speaker 1: I tried then to question him as to the cause,
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  Speaker 1: and this change of humor, But each time he laughed
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  Speaker 1: and made me no answer. One day, having questioned him
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  Speaker 1: about his parents, of whom he never spoke, he left me,
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  Speaker 1: pretending not to have heard what I said. While things
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  Speaker 1: were in this state between us, the famous case of
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  Speaker 1: the Yellow Room took place. It was this case which
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  Speaker 1: was to rank him as the leading newspaper reporter, and
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  Speaker 1: to obtain for him the reputation of being the greatest
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  Speaker 1: detective in the world. It should not surprise us to
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  Speaker 1: find in the one man the perfection of two such
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  Speaker 1: lines of activity. If we remember that the daily press
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  Speaker 1: was already beginning to transform itself and to become what
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  Speaker 1: it is to day, the gazette of crime. Morose minded
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  Speaker 1: people may complain of this. For myself, I regard it
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  Speaker 1: a matter for congratulation. We can never have too many arms,
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  Speaker 1: public or private, against the criminal. To this, some people
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  Speaker 1: may answer that by continually public wishing the details of crimes,
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  Speaker 1: the press ends by encouraging their commission. But then with
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  Speaker 1: some people we can never do right. Rouletabille, as I
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  Speaker 1: have said, entered my room that morning of the twenty
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  Speaker 1: sixth of October eighteen ninety two. He was looking redder
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  Speaker 1: than usual, and his eyes were bulging out of his
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  Speaker 1: head as the phrases, and altogether he appeared to be
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  Speaker 1: in a state of extreme excitement. He waved the matter
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  Speaker 1: with a trembling hand and cried, well, my dear Sainclair,
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  Speaker 1: have you read it, the Glandier crime? Yes, the yellow room.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think of it? I think that it
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  Speaker 1: must have been the devil or the bet de Bondieu
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  Speaker 1: that committed the crime? Be serious? Well, I don't much
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  Speaker 1: believe in murderers who make their escape through walls of
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  Speaker 1: solid brick. I think Daddy Jack did wrong to leave
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  Speaker 1: behind them the weapon with which the crime was committed.
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  Speaker 1: And as he occupied the attic immediately above Mademoiselle Stangerson's room,
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  Speaker 1: the builder's job, ordered by the examining magistrate, will give
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  Speaker 1: us the key of the enigma. It won't be long
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  Speaker 1: before we learn by what natural trap or by what
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  Speaker 1: secret door the old fellow was able to slip in
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  Speaker 1: and out and return immediately to the laboratory to Monsieur
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  Speaker 1: Stagerson without his absence being noticed, And that, of course,
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  Speaker 1: is only a hypothesis. Rouletabille sat down in an armchair,
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  Speaker 1: lit his pipe, which he was never without smoked for
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  Speaker 1: a few minutes in silence, no doubt, to calm the
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  Speaker 1: excitement which visibly dominated him, and then replied, young man,
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  Speaker 1: He said, in a tone the sad irony of which
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  Speaker 1: I will not attempt to render. Young Man, you are
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  Speaker 1: our lawyer, and I doubt not your ability to save
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  Speaker 1: the guilty from conviction. But if you were a magistrate
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  Speaker 1: on the bench, how easy it would be for you
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  Speaker 1: to condemn innocent persons. You are really gifted, young man.
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  Speaker 1: He continued to smoke energetically, and then went on, no
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  Speaker 1: trap will be found, and the mystery of the yellow
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  Speaker 1: room will become more and more mistife. That's why it
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  Speaker 1: interests me the examining magistrate is right. Nothing stranger than
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  Speaker 1: this crime has ever been known. Have you any idea
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  Speaker 1: of the way by which the murderer escaped? I asked, None,
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  Speaker 1: replied Rouletabille, None for the present, But I have an
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  Speaker 1: idea as to the revolver. The murderer did not use it,
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  Speaker 1: Good heavens, by whom then was it used? Why by
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  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle Stangerson. I don't understand, or rather I've never understood,
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  Speaker 1: I said Rouletabille shrugged, his shoulders. Is there nothing in
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  Speaker 1: this article in the matter by which you were particularly struck?
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  Speaker 1: Nothing I found. The whole of the story it tells
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  Speaker 1: equally strange. Well. But the locked door with the key
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  Speaker 1: on the inside, that's the only perfectly natural thing in
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  Speaker 1: the whole article. Really. And the bolt, the bolt, yes,
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  Speaker 1: the bolt also in the room, a still further protection
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  Speaker 1: against entry. Mademoiselle Stangerson took quite extraordinary precautions. It's clear
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  Speaker 1: to me that she feared someone. That was why she
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  Speaker 1: took such precautions, even Daddy Jack's revolver, without telling him
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  Speaker 1: of it. No doubt, she didn't wish to alarm anybody,
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  Speaker 1: and least of all her father. What she dreaded took place,
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  Speaker 1: and she defended herself. There was a struggle, and she
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  Speaker 1: used the revolver skillfully enough to wound the assassin in
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  Speaker 1: the hand, which explains the impression on the wall and
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  Speaker 1: on the door of the large blood stained hand of
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  Speaker 1: the man who was searching for a means of exit
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  Speaker 1: from the chamber. But she didn't fire soon enough to
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  Speaker 1: avoid the terrible blow on the right temple. Then the
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  Speaker 1: wound on the temple was not done with the revolver.
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  Speaker 1: The paper doesn't say it was, and I don't think
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  Speaker 1: it was, because logically it appears to me that the
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  Speaker 1: revolver was used by Mademoiselle Stangerson against the assassin. Now
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  Speaker 1: what weapon did the murderer use? The blow on the
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  Speaker 1: temple seems to show that the murderer wished to stun
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  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle Stangerson after he had unsuccessfully tried to strangle her.
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  Speaker 1: He must have known that the attic was inhabited by
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  Speaker 1: Daddy Jack, and that was one of the reasons I
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  Speaker 1: think why he must have used a quiet weapon, a
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  Speaker 1: life preserver or a hammer. All that doesn't explain how
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  Speaker 1: the murderer got out of the Yellow room, I observed evidently,
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  Speaker 1: replied Rouletabille, rising, and that is what has to be explained.
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  Speaker 1: I am going to the Chateau du Glandier and have
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  Speaker 1: come to see whether you will go with me. I yes,
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  Speaker 1: my boy, I want you. The Apoch has definitely entrusted
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  Speaker 1: this case to me, and I must clear it up
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  Speaker 1: as quickly as possible. But in what way can I
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  Speaker 1: be of any use to you? Monsieur Robert Darzac is
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  Speaker 1: at the Chateau du Glandier that's true, his despair must
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  Speaker 1: be boundless. I must have a talk with him. Rouletabille's
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  Speaker 1: in a tone that surprised me. Is it because you
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  Speaker 1: think there's something to be got out of him? I asked, yes,
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  Speaker 1: that was all he would say. He retired to my
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  Speaker 1: sitting room, begging me to dress quickly. I knew Monsieur
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  Speaker 1: Robert Darzac from having been of great service to him
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  Speaker 1: in a civil action while I was acting as secretary
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  Speaker 1: to Maitre Barbet de Latour. Monsieur Robert Darzac, who was
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  Speaker 1: at that time about forty years of age, was a
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  Speaker 1: professor of physics at the Sabonne. He was intimately acquainted
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  Speaker 1: with the Stangersons, and after an assiduous seven years courtship
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  Speaker 1: of the daughter, had been on the point of marrying her.
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  Speaker 1: In spite of the fact that she has become, as
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  Speaker 1: the phrase goes, a person of a certain age, she
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  Speaker 1: was still remarkably good looking. While I was dressing, I
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  Speaker 1: called out to Rouletabille, who was impatiently moving about my
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  Speaker 1: sitting room. Have you any ideas in the murderer's station
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  Speaker 1: in life? Yes, he replied, I think if he isn't
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  Speaker 1: a man in society. He is at least a man
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  Speaker 1: belonging to the upper class. But that again is only
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  Speaker 1: an impression. What has led you to form it? Well,
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  Speaker 1: the greasy cap, the common handkerchief, and the marks of
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  Speaker 1: the rough boots on the floor, he replied, I understand,
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  Speaker 1: I said, murderers don't leave traces behind them which tell
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  Speaker 1: the truth. We shall make something out of you, yet,
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  Speaker 1: my dear Sainclair concluded Rouletabille, end of chapter two. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by Stuart Bell, Cambridge, UK,