Latest / The Gaston Leroux Library / The Mystery of the Yellow Room Chapter 16 - Strange Phenomenon of the Dissociation of Matter

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The Mystery of the Yellow Room Chapter 16 - Strange Phenomenon of the Dissociation of Matter · The Gaston Leroux Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen 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. The Mystery of the Yellow Room
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  Speaker 1: by Gaston le Roux, Chapter sixteen, strange phenomenon of the
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  Speaker 1: dissociation of matter. Extract from the note book of Joseph
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  Speaker 1: Ultaby continued. I am again at the window sill, continues Ruletabi,
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  Speaker 1: and once more I raised my head above it through
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  Speaker 1: an opening in the curtains, the arrangement of which has
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  Speaker 1: not been changed. I am ready to look, anxious to
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  Speaker 1: note the position in which I am going to find
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  Speaker 1: the murderer, whether his back will still be turned towards me,
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  Speaker 1: whether he is still seated at the desk writing. But
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  Speaker 1: perhaps perhaps he is no longer there yet? How could
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  Speaker 1: he have fled? Was I not in possession of his ladder?
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  Speaker 1: I force myself to be cool. I raise my head
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  Speaker 1: yet higher. I look. He is still there. I see
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  Speaker 1: his monstrous back, deformed by the shadow thrown by the candle.
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  Speaker 1: He is no longer writing now, and the candle is
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  Speaker 1: on the packet over which he is bending a position
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  Speaker 1: which serves my purpose. I hold my breath. I mount
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  Speaker 1: the ladder. I am on the uppermost rung of it,
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  Speaker 1: and with my left hand seize hold of the window sill.
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  Speaker 1: In this moment of approaching success, I feel my heart
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  Speaker 1: beating widely. I put my revolver between my teeth a
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  Speaker 1: quick spring, and I shall be on the window ledge.
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  Speaker 1: But the ladder I had been obliged to press on
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  Speaker 1: it heavily, and my foot had scarcely left it when
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  Speaker 1: I felt it swaying beneath me. It crated on the
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  Speaker 1: wall and fell. But already my knees were touching the
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  Speaker 1: window sill, and by a movement quick as lightning, I
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  Speaker 1: got on to it. But the murderer had been even
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  Speaker 1: quicker than I had been. He had heard the grating
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  Speaker 1: of the ladder on the wall, and I saw the
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  Speaker 1: monstrous back of the man raise itself. I saw his head,
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  Speaker 1: Did I really see it? The candle on the pocket
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  Speaker 1: lit up his legs only above the height of the table.
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  Speaker 1: The chamber was in darkness. I saw a man with
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  Speaker 1: long hair, a full beard, wild looking eyes, a pale
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  Speaker 1: face framed in large whiskers as well as I could distinguish,
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  Speaker 1: and as I think red in color, I did not
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  Speaker 1: know the face that was, in brief the chief sensation
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  Speaker 1: I received from that face. In the dim half light
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  Speaker 1: in which I saw it, I did not know it,
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  Speaker 1: or at least I did not recognize it. Now for
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  Speaker 1: quick action. It was indeed time for that, For as
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  Speaker 1: I was about to place my legs through the window,
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  Speaker 1: the man had seen me, had bounded to his feet,
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  Speaker 1: had sprung as I foresaw he would, to the door
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  Speaker 1: of the empty chamber, had time to open it, and fled,
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  Speaker 1: But I was already behind him, revolver in hand, shouting help.
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  Speaker 1: Like an arrow, I crossed the room, but noticed a
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  Speaker 1: letter on the table. As I rushed, I almost came
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  Speaker 1: up with the man in the empty room, for he
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  Speaker 1: had lost time in opening the door to the gallery.
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  Speaker 1: I flew on wings, and in the gallery was but
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  Speaker 1: a few feet behind him. He had taken, as I
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  Speaker 1: supposed he would, the gallery on his right, that is
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  Speaker 1: to say, the road he had prepared for his flight.
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  Speaker 1: Help Jacques, help Larson, I cried, he could not escape us.
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  Speaker 1: I raised a shout of joy, of savage victory. The
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  Speaker 1: man reached the intersection of the two galleries, hardly two
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  Speaker 1: seconds before me for the meeting which I had prepared,
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  Speaker 1: the fatal shock which must inevitably take place at that spot.
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  Speaker 1: We all rushed to the crossing place, Monsieur Strangerson and
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  Speaker 1: I coming from one end of the right gallery, Daddy
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  Speaker 1: Jacques coming from the other end of the same gallery,
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  Speaker 1: and Frederic Larson coming from the off turning gallery. The
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  Speaker 1: man was not there. We looked at each other stupidly
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  Speaker 1: and with eyes terrified. The man had vanished, like a ghost.
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  Speaker 1: Where is he? Where is he? We all asked. It
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  Speaker 1: is impossible he can have escaped. I cried, my terror,
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  Speaker 1: mastered by my anger. I touched him, exclaimed Frederic Larsan.
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  Speaker 1: I felt his breath on my face, cried Daddy Jacques,
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  Speaker 1: Where is he? Where is he? We all cried. We
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  Speaker 1: raced like madmen along the two galleries. We visited doors
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  Speaker 1: and windows. They were closed, hermetically closed. They had not
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  Speaker 1: been opened besides the opening of a door or window
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  Speaker 1: by this man whom we were hunting, without our having
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  Speaker 1: perceived it would have been more inexplicable than his disappearance.
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  Speaker 1: Where is he? Where is he? He could not have
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  Speaker 1: got away by a door or window, nor by any
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  Speaker 1: other way. He could not have passed through our bodies.
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  Speaker 1: I confess that for the moment I felt done for,
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  Speaker 1: For the gallery was perfectly lighted, and there was neither trap,
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  Speaker 1: nor secret door in the walls, nor any sort of
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  Speaker 1: hiding place. We moved the chairs and lifted the pictures. Nothing. Nothing.
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  Speaker 1: We would have looked into a flower pot, if there
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  Speaker 1: had been one to look into. When this mystery, thanks
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  Speaker 1: to Rouletabille, was naturally explained, by the help alone of
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  Speaker 1: his masterful mind, we were able to realize that the
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  Speaker 1: murderer had got away neither by a door, a window,
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  Speaker 1: nor the stairs, a fact which the judges would not admit.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter sixteen. Recording by Ismae in Belgium in
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  Speaker 1: August two thousand eight.