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The Mystery of the Yellow Room Chapter 18 - Rouletabille Has Drawn a Circle... · The Gaston Leroux Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eighteen 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: poly domain. For more free audiobooks ought 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 Leroux, Chapter eighteen. Rultaby has drawn a circle
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  Speaker 1: between the two bumps on his forehead. Extract from the
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  Speaker 1: notebook of Joseph Ultaby continued. We separated on the thresholds
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  Speaker 1: of our rooms with a melancholy shake of the hands.
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  Speaker 1: I was glad to have aroused in him a suspicion
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  Speaker 1: of error. His was an original brain, very intelligent, but
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  Speaker 1: without method. I did not go to bed. I awaited
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  Speaker 1: the coming of daylight, and then went down to the
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  Speaker 1: front of the chateau and made a detour, examining every
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  Speaker 1: trace of foot steps coming towards it or going from it. These, however,
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  Speaker 1: were so mixed and confusing that I could make nothing
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  Speaker 1: of them. Here I may make a remark I am
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  Speaker 1: not accustomed to attach an exaggerated importance to exterior signs
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  Speaker 1: left in the track of a crime. The method which
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  Speaker 1: traces the criminal by means of the tracks of his
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  Speaker 1: footsteps is altogether primitive, so many footprints are identical. However,
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  Speaker 1: in the disturbed state of my mind, I did go
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  Speaker 1: into the deserted court and did look at all the
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  Speaker 1: footprints I could find there, seeking for some indication as
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  Speaker 1: a basis for reasoning, if I could but find a
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  Speaker 1: right starting point. In despair, I seated myself on a
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  Speaker 1: stone for over an hour, I busied myself with the
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  Speaker 1: common ordinary work of a policeman. Like the least intelligent
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  Speaker 1: of detectives, I went on blindly over the traces of footprints,
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  Speaker 1: which told me just no more than they could. I
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  Speaker 1: came to the conclusion that I was a fool, lower
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  Speaker 1: in the scale of intelligence than even the police of
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  Speaker 1: the modern romance a novelists built mountains of stupidity out
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  Speaker 1: of a footprint on the sand, or from an impression
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  Speaker 1: of a hand on the wall. That's the way innocent
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  Speaker 1: men are brought to prison. It might convince an examining
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  Speaker 1: magistrate or the head of a detective department, but it's
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  Speaker 1: not proof. You writers forget that what the senses furnish
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  Speaker 1: is not proof. If I am taking cognizance of what
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  Speaker 1: is offered me by my senses, I do so but
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  Speaker 1: to bring the results within the circle of my reason.
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  Speaker 1: That circle may be the most circumscribed, but if it is,
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  Speaker 1: it has this advantage. It holds nothing but the truth. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: I swear that I have never used the evidence of
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  Speaker 1: the senses, but as servants to my reason, I have
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  Speaker 1: never permitted them to become my master. They have not
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  Speaker 1: made of me that monstrous thing worse than a blind man,
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  Speaker 1: a man who sees falsely. And that is why I
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  Speaker 1: can triumph over your error and your merely animal intelligence.
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  Speaker 1: Fredri Larsan, be of good courage, then, friend Rouletabille, it
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  Speaker 1: is impossible that the incident of the inexplicable gallery should
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  Speaker 1: be outside the circle of your reason. You know that,
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  Speaker 1: then have faith and take thought with yourself, and forget
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  Speaker 1: not that you took hold of the right hand when
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  Speaker 1: you drew that circle in your brain within which to
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  Speaker 1: unravel this mysterious play of circumstance. To it once again,
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  Speaker 1: go back to the gallery, take your stand on your reason,
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  Speaker 1: and rest there as Frederic Narcon rests on his cane.
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  Speaker 1: You will then soon prove that the great thread is
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  Speaker 1: nothing but a fool. Thirtieth October noon, Joseph ultabille. I
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  Speaker 1: acted as I planned, with head on fire, I retraced
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  Speaker 1: my way to the gallery, and, without having found anything
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  Speaker 1: more than I had seen on the previous night, the
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  Speaker 1: right hold I had taken off my reason grew me
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  Speaker 1: to something so important that I was obliged to cling
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  Speaker 1: to it to save myself from falling. Now for the
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  Speaker 1: strength and patience to find sensible traces to fit in
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  Speaker 1: with my thinking, and these must come within the circle
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  Speaker 1: I have drawn between the two bumps on my forehead.
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  Speaker 1: Thirtieth of October midnight, Joseph rulteby end of chapter eighteen,
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  Speaker 1: recorded by Zoa in Belgium in August two thousand eight.