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The Mystery of the Yellow Room Chapter 20 - An Act of Mademoiselle Stangerson · The Gaston Leroux Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty of the Mystery of the Yellow Room. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more free audio books aut volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Tad Nugent. The Mystery
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  Speaker 1: of the Yellow Room by Gaston LaRue, Chapter twenty. An
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  Speaker 1: itive Mademoiselle Stangerson, you remember me, Monsieur, asked, Rouletabille perfectly,
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  Speaker 1: replied arthur Rance. I recognize you as the lead at
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  Speaker 1: the bar, the face of Rouletabille Crimson being called the lead.
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  Speaker 1: I want to shake hands with you. You are a bright
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  Speaker 1: little fellow. The America can extended his hand, and Rouletabille,
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  Speaker 1: relaxing his frownd, shook it and introduced mister arthur Rance
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  Speaker 1: to me. He invited him to share our meal. No thanks,
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  Speaker 1: I breakfasted with Monsiver Stangerson. Arthur Rance spoke French perfectly,
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  Speaker 1: almost without an accent. I did not expect to have
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  Speaker 1: the pleasure of seeing you again, monsieuver I thought you
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  Speaker 1: were to have left France the day after the reception
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  Speaker 1: at the Elysee. Rouletabille and I, outwardly indifferent, listened most
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  Speaker 1: intently for every word the American would say. The man's
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  Speaker 1: purplished redface, his healthy eyelids, the nervous teachings all spoke
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  Speaker 1: of his addiction to Dwe how came it that so
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  Speaker 1: sorry a specimen of a man should be so intimate
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  Speaker 1: with Monsieur Stangerson. Some days later I learned from Frederic Larsan, who,
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  Speaker 1: like ourselves, was surprised and mystified by his appearance and
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  Speaker 1: reception at the chateau, that mister Rance had been an
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  Speaker 1: inebriate for only about fifteen years, that is to say,
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  Speaker 1: since the professor and his daughter left Philadelphia. During the
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  Speaker 1: time the Stangersons lived in America, they were very intimate
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  Speaker 1: with Arthur Rance, who was one of the most distinguished
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  Speaker 1: phrenologists of the New World. Owing to new experiments he
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  Speaker 1: had made enormous shrines beyond the science of gall and Lavater.
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  Speaker 1: The friendliness with which he was received that the Glandier
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  Speaker 1: may be explained by the fact that he had once
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  Speaker 1: rendered Mademoiselle Stangerson a great service by stopping, at the
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  Speaker 1: peril of his old life, the runaway horses of her carriage.
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  Speaker 1: The immediate result of that good, however, had been no
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  Speaker 1: more than a mere friendly association with the Stangersons, certainly
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  Speaker 1: not a love affair. Frederic Larsan did not tell me
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  Speaker 1: where he had picked up this information, but he appeared
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  Speaker 1: to be quite sure of what he said. Had we
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  Speaker 1: know this fight at the time, Arthuran's matters at the
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  Speaker 1: Dondon Inn his appearance at the Chateau might not have
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  Speaker 1: puzzled us, but they could not have failed to increase
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  Speaker 1: our in trust in the man himself. The American must
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  Speaker 1: have been at least forty five years old. He spoke
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  Speaker 1: in a perfectly natural tone in reply to Rouletabille's question,
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  Speaker 1: I put off my return to America when I heard
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  Speaker 1: of the attack on Mademoiselle Stangerson. I wanted to be
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  Speaker 1: certain the lady had not been killed, and I shall
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  Speaker 1: not go away until she is perfectly recovered. Arthur Rance
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  Speaker 1: then took the lead in talk, paying no heed to
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  Speaker 1: some of Rouletabille's questions. He gave us, without our inviting him,
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  Speaker 1: his personal views on the subject of the tragedy, views which,
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  Speaker 1: as well as I could make out, were not far
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  Speaker 1: from those held by Frederic Larsan. The American so thought
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  Speaker 1: that Robert Darzac had something to do with the matter.
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  Speaker 1: He did not mention him by name, but there was
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  Speaker 1: no room to doubt whom he meant. He told us
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  Speaker 1: he was aware of the efforts young Rouletabille was making
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  Speaker 1: to unravel the tangles skein of the Yellow Room mystery.
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  Speaker 1: He explained that Monsieur Stangerson had related to him all
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  Speaker 1: that had taken place in the inexplicable gallery. He several
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  Speaker 1: times expressed his regret at Monsieur Darzac's absence from the
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  Speaker 1: chateau on all these occasions, and thought that Monsieur Darzac
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  Speaker 1: had done cleverly in allying himself with Monsieur Joseph Rouletabille,
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  Speaker 1: who could not fail sooner or later to discover the murderer.
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  Speaker 1: He spoke the last sentence with uncles sil Dirony. Then
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  Speaker 1: he rose, bowed to us, and left the inn. Rouletabille
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  Speaker 1: watched him through the window, an odd fish that he said,
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  Speaker 1: do you think he'll pass the night at the Glandier?
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  Speaker 1: I asked, to my amazement, The young reporter answered that
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  Speaker 1: it was a matter of entire indifference to him whether
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  Speaker 1: he did or not as to how we spent our
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  Speaker 1: time during the afternoon. All I need to say is
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  Speaker 1: that Rouletabille led me to the grotto of Saint Genevieve,
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  Speaker 1: and all the time talked of every subject but the
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  Speaker 1: one in which we were most interested to watch evening,
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  Speaker 1: I was surprised to find Rouletabille making none of the
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  Speaker 1: preparations I had expected him to make. I spoke to
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  Speaker 1: him about it when night had come on and we
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  Speaker 1: were once more in his room. He replied that all
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  Speaker 1: his arrangements had already been made, and this time the
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  Speaker 1: murderer would not get away from him. I expressed some
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  Speaker 1: doubt on this, reminding him of his disappearance in the gallery,
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  Speaker 1: and suggested that the same phenomenon might occur again. He
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  Speaker 1: answered that he hoped it would. He desired nothing more.
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  Speaker 1: I did not insist, knowing by experience how useless that
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  Speaker 1: would have been. He told me that, with the help
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  Speaker 1: of the Conciergis, the chateau had since early dawn been
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  Speaker 1: watched in such a way that nobody could approach it
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  Speaker 1: without his knowing it, and that he had no concern
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  Speaker 1: for those who might have left it and remained with them.
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  Speaker 1: It was then six o'clock by his watch, rising he
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  Speaker 1: made a sign to me to follow him, and without
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  Speaker 1: in the least trying to conceal his movements or the
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  Speaker 1: sound of his footsteps, he led me through the gallery.
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  Speaker 1: We reached the right gallery and came to the landing place,
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  Speaker 1: which we crossed. We then continued our way in the
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  Speaker 1: gallery of the left wing, passing Professor Stangerson's apartment. At
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  Speaker 1: the far end of the gallery before coming to the
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  Speaker 1: dungeon is the room occupied by Arthur Rance. We knew
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  Speaker 1: that because we had seen him at the window looking
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  Speaker 1: on to the court. The door of the room opens
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  Speaker 1: on to the end of the gallery, exactly facing the
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  Speaker 1: east window at the extremity of the right gallery where
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  Speaker 1: Rouletabille had placed Daddy Jocker, and commands an uninterrupted view
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  Speaker 1: of the gallery from end to end of the chateau
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  Speaker 1: that off turning gallery, said Rouletabille, I reserved for myself
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  Speaker 1: when I tell you, you'll come and take your place here,
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  Speaker 1: And he made me enter a little dark triangular closet
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  Speaker 1: building a bend of the wall to the left of
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  Speaker 1: the door of Arthur Rance's room. From this recess I
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  Speaker 1: could see all that occurred in the gallery, as well
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  Speaker 1: as if I had been standing in front of Arthur
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  Speaker 1: Rance's door, and I could watch that door too. The
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  Speaker 1: door of the closet, which was to be my place
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  Speaker 1: of observation, was fitted with panels of transparent glass. In
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  Speaker 1: the gallery, where all the lambs had been lit, it
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  Speaker 1: was quite light. In the closet, however, it was quite dark.
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  Speaker 1: It was a splendid place from which to observe and
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  Speaker 1: remained unobserved. I was soon to play the part of
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  Speaker 1: a spy, a common policeman. I wonder what my leader
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  Speaker 1: of the bar would have said had he known. I
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  Speaker 1: was not altogether pleased with my duties. But I could
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  Speaker 1: not refuse Rouletabille the assistance he had begged me to
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  Speaker 1: give him.
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  Speaker 2: I took care not to make him see that I
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  Speaker 2: in the least objected, and for several reasons, I wanted
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  Speaker 2: to oblige him. I did not wish him to think
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  Speaker 2: me a coward. I was filled with curiosity, and it
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  Speaker 2: was too late for me to draw back, even had
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  Speaker 2: I determined to do so. That I had not had
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  Speaker 2: this scruple sooner was because my curiosity had quite got
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  Speaker 2: the better of me. I might also urge that I
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  Speaker 2: was happy to save the life of a woman and
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  Speaker 2: even a lawyer may do that consentiously.
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  Speaker 1: We returned along the gallery. On reaching the door of
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  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle Stangerson's apartment, it opened from a push given by
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  Speaker 1: the steward, who was waiting at the dinner table. Monsieur
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  Speaker 1: Stangerson had for the last three days dined with his
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  Speaker 1: daughter in the drawing room on the first floor. As
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  Speaker 1: the door remained open, we distinctly saw Mademoiselle Stangerson taking
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  Speaker 1: advantage of the steward's absence, and, while her father was
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  Speaker 1: stooping to pick up something he had let fall, poured
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  Speaker 1: the contents of a fire into Monk's Seir Stangerson's class.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter twenty