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The Mystery of the Yellow Room Chapter 13 - "The Presbytery Has Lost Nothing of Its Charm..." · The Gaston Leroux Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen 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 org. Recording by Glorious Obliquey. The
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  Speaker 1: Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston LaRue, chapter thirteen.
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  Speaker 1: The presbytery has lost nothing of its charm, nor the
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  Speaker 1: garden its brightness. A week after the occurrence of the
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  Speaker 1: events I have just recounted, on the second of November,
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  Speaker 1: to be exact, I received at my home in Paris,
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  Speaker 1: the following telegraphic message, come to the Glandier by the
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  Speaker 1: earliest train, bring revolvers. Friendly greetings Rouletabille. I have already said.
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  Speaker 1: I think that at that period, being a young barrister
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  Speaker 1: with but few briefs, I frequented the Palais de Justice
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  Speaker 1: rather for the purpose of familiarizing myself with my professional duties,
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  Speaker 1: than for the defense of the widow and orphan. I
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  Speaker 1: could therefore feel no surprise at Rouletabille disposing of my time. Moreover,
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  Speaker 1: he knew how keenly interested I was in his journalistic
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  Speaker 1: adventures in general, and above all in the murder at
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  Speaker 1: the Glandier. I had not heard from him for a week,
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  Speaker 1: nor of the progress made with that mysterious case, except
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  Speaker 1: by the innumerable paragraphs in the newspapers and by the
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  Speaker 1: very brief notes of Rouletabille in the Epoch. Those notes
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  Speaker 1: had divulged the fact that traces of human blood had
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  Speaker 1: been found on the mutton bone, as well as fresh
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  Speaker 1: traces of the blood of Mademoiselle Stangerson. The old stains
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  Speaker 1: belonged to other crimes, probably dating years back. It may
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  Speaker 1: be easily imagined that the crime engaged the attention of
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  Speaker 1: the press throughout the world. No crime known had more
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  Speaker 1: absorbed the minds of people. It appeared to me, however,
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  Speaker 1: that the judicial inquiry was making but very little progress.
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  Speaker 1: And I should have been very glad if, on the
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  Speaker 1: receipt of my friend's invitation to rejoin him at the Glandier,
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  Speaker 1: the despatch had not contained the words bring revolvers. That
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  Speaker 1: puzzled me greatly. Rouletabille telegraphing for revolvers meant that there
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  Speaker 1: might be occasion to use them. Now I confess it
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  Speaker 1: without shame. I am not a hero, but here was
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  Speaker 1: a friend evidently in danger, calling on me to go
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  Speaker 1: to his aid. I did not hesitate long, and after
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  Speaker 1: assuring myself that the only revolver I possessed was properly loaded,
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  Speaker 1: I hurried towards the Orlean station. On the way I
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  Speaker 1: remembered that Rouletabille had asked for two revolvers. I therefore
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  Speaker 1: entered a gunsmith's shop and bought an excellent weapon for
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  Speaker 1: my friend. I had hoped to find him at the
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  Speaker 1: station at Epinay, but he was not there. However, a
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  Speaker 1: cab was waiting for me, and I was soon at
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  Speaker 1: the Glandier. Nobody was at the gate, and it was
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  Speaker 1: only on the threshold of the chateau that I met
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  Speaker 1: the young man. He saluted me with a friendly gesture
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  Speaker 1: and threw his arms about me, inquiring warmly as to
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  Speaker 1: the state of my health. When we were in the
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  Speaker 1: little sitting room of which I have spoken, Rouletabille made
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  Speaker 1: me sit down. It's going badly, he said, what's going badly?
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  Speaker 1: I asked everything. He came nearer to me and whispered,
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  Speaker 1: Frederic Lawson is working with might and mien against Darzac.
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  Speaker 1: This did not astonish me. I had seen the poor show.
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  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle Stangerson's fiance had made at the time of the
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  Speaker 1: examination of the footprints. However, I immediately asked, what about
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  Speaker 1: that cane. It is still in the hands of Frederic Lawson.
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  Speaker 1: He never lets go of it. But doesn't it prove
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  Speaker 1: the alibi for Monsieur Darzac not at all? Gently questioned
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  Speaker 1: by me, Darzac denied having on that evening, or on
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  Speaker 1: any other purchased a caine at Cassette's. However, said Rouletabille,
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  Speaker 1: I'll not swear to anything. Monsieur Darzac has such strange
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  Speaker 1: fits of silence that one does not know exactly what
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  Speaker 1: to think of what he says to Frederic Lawson. This
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  Speaker 1: cane must mean a piece of very death iamaging evidence,
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  Speaker 1: But in what way? The time when it was bought
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  Speaker 1: shows it could not have been in the murderer's possession.
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  Speaker 1: The time doesn't worry Lawson. He is not obliged to
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  Speaker 1: adopt my theory, which assumes that the murderer got into
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  Speaker 1: the Yellow room between five and six o'clock, but there's
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  Speaker 1: nothing to prevent him. Assuming that the murderer got in
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  Speaker 1: between ten and eleven o'clock at night. At that hour,
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur and Mademoiselle Stangerson, assisted by Daddy Jacques, were engaged
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  Speaker 1: in making an interesting chemical experiment in the part of
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  Speaker 1: the laboratory taken up by the furnaces. Lawson says unlikely,
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  Speaker 1: as that may seem that the murderer may have slipped
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  Speaker 1: behind them. He has already got the examining magistrate to
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  Speaker 1: listen to him. When one looks closely into it, the
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  Speaker 1: reasoning is absurd, seeing that the intimate, if there is one,
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  Speaker 1: must have known that the professor would shortly leave the pavilion,
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  Speaker 1: and that the friend had only to put off operating
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  Speaker 1: till after the professor's departure. Why should he have risked
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  Speaker 1: crossing the laboratory while the professor was in it, and
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  Speaker 1: then when he had got into the yellow room. There
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  Speaker 1: are many points to be cleared up before Lawson's theory
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  Speaker 1: can be admitted. I shan't waste my time over it,
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  Speaker 1: for my theory won't allow me to occupy myself with
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  Speaker 1: mere imagination. Only as I am obliged for the moment
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  Speaker 1: to keep silent, and Larson sometimes talks, he may finish
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  Speaker 1: by coming out openly against Monsieur Darzac. If I am
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  Speaker 1: not there, added the young reporter proudly, for there are
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  Speaker 1: surface evidences against Darzac much more convincing than that Keene,
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  Speaker 1: which remains incomprehensible to me, all the more so as
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  Speaker 1: Larson does not, in the least hesitate to let Darzac
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  Speaker 1: see him with it. I understand many things in Lawson's theory,
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  Speaker 1: but I can't make anything of that Kine. Is he
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  Speaker 1: still at the chateau, Yes, he hardly ever leaves it.
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  Speaker 1: He sleeps there as I do, at the request of
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur Stangerson, who has done for him what Monsieur Robert
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  Speaker 1: Darzac has done for me. In spite of the accusation
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  Speaker 1: made by Lawson that Monsieur Stangerson knows who the murderer is,
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  Speaker 1: he yet affords him every facility for arriving at the truth,
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  Speaker 1: just as Darzac is doing for me. But you are
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  Speaker 1: convinced of Darzac's innocence. At one time I did believe
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  Speaker 1: in the possibility of his guilt. That was when we
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  Speaker 1: arrived here for the first time. The time has come
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  Speaker 1: for me to tell you what has passed between Monsieur
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  Speaker 1: Darzac and myself here. Rouletabille interrupted himself and asked me
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  Speaker 1: if I had brought the revolvers. I showed him them.
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  Speaker 1: Having examined both, he pronounced them excellent and handed them
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  Speaker 1: back to me. Shall we have any use for them?
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  Speaker 1: I asked, No doubt, this evening we shall pass the
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  Speaker 1: night here. If that won't tire you. On the contrary,
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  Speaker 1: I said, with an expression that made Rouletabille laugh, No, no,
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  Speaker 1: he said, this is no time for laughing. You remember
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  Speaker 1: the phrase which was the open sesame of this chateauf
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  Speaker 1: of mystery. Yes, I said, perfectly, the presbytery has lost
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  Speaker 1: nothing of its charm, nor the garden its brightness. It
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  Speaker 1: was the phrase which you found on the half burned
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  Speaker 1: piece of paper amongst the ashes in the laboratory. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: at the bottom of the paper, where the flame had
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  Speaker 1: not reached was this date, twenty third of October. Remember
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  Speaker 1: this date. It is highly important. I am now going
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  Speaker 1: to tell you about that curious phrase. On the evening
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  Speaker 1: before the crime, that is to say, on the twenty third,
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur and Mademoiselle Stangerson were at a reception at the Eliza.
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  Speaker 1: I know that because I was there on duty, having
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  Speaker 1: to interview one of the savants of the Academy of Philadelphia.
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  Speaker 1: Who was being fated there. I had never before seen
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  Speaker 1: either Monsieur or Mademoiselle Stangerson. I was seated in the
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  Speaker 1: room which precedes the Salon des Ambassadeurs, and tired of
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  Speaker 1: being jostled by so many noble personages, I had fallen
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  Speaker 1: into a vague reverie when I scent it near me,
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  Speaker 1: the perfume of the lady in black. Do you ask
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  Speaker 1: me what is the perfume of the lady in black?
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  Speaker 1: It must suffice for you to know that it is
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  Speaker 1: the perfume of which I am very fond, and because
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  Speaker 1: it was that of a lady who had been very
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  Speaker 1: kind to me in my childhood, a lady whom I
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  Speaker 1: had always seen dressed in black. The lady who that
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  Speaker 1: evening was scented with the perfume of the lady in black,
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  Speaker 1: was dressed in white. She was wonderfully beautiful. I could
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  Speaker 1: not help rising and following her. An old man gave
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  Speaker 1: her his arm, and as they passed, I heard voices
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  Speaker 1: say Professor Stangerson and his daughter. It was in that
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  Speaker 1: way I learned who it was I was following. They
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  Speaker 1: met Monsieur Robert Darzac, whom I knew by sight, Professor
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  Speaker 1: Stangerson accosted by mister Arthur William Rance, one of the
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  Speaker 1: American savants, seated himself in the Great gallery, and Monsieur
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  Speaker 1: Robert Darzac led Mademoiselle Stangerson into the conservatory. I followed.
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  Speaker 1: The weather was very mild that evening. The garden doors
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  Speaker 1: were open. Mademoiselle Stangerson threw a fichu shawl over her shoulders,
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  Speaker 1: and I plainly saw that it was she who was
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  Speaker 1: begging Monsieur Darzac to go with her into the garden.
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  Speaker 1: I continued to follow in, interested by the agitation plainly
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  Speaker 1: exhibited by the bearing of Monsieur Darzac. They slowly passed
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  Speaker 1: along the wall abutting on the Avenue Marini. I took
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  Speaker 1: the central alley, walking parallel with them, and then crossed
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  Speaker 1: over for the purpose of getting nearer to them. The
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  Speaker 1: night was dark and the grass deadened the sound of
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  Speaker 1: my steps. They had stopped under the vacillating light of
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  Speaker 1: a gas jet, and appeared to be both bending over
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  Speaker 1: a paper held by Mademoiselle Stangerson, reading something which deeply
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  Speaker 1: interested them. I stopped in the darkness and silence. Neither
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  Speaker 1: of them saw me, and I distinctly heard Mademoiselle Stangerson repeat,
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  Speaker 1: as she was refolding the paper, the presbytery has lost
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  Speaker 1: nothing of its charm, nor the garden its brightness. It
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  Speaker 1: was said in a tone at once mocking and despairing,
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  Speaker 1: and was followed by a burst of such nervous laughter
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  Speaker 1: that I think her words will never cease to sound
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  Speaker 1: in my ears. But another phrase was uttered by Monsieur
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  Speaker 1: Robert Darzac. Must I commit a crime? I am then
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  Speaker 1: to win you? He was in an extraordinarily agitated state.
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  Speaker 1: He took the hand of Mademoiselle Stangerson and held it
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  Speaker 1: for a long time to his lips, and I thought,
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  Speaker 1: from the movement of his shoulders that he was crying.
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  Speaker 1: Then they went away. When I returned to the Great Gallery,
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  Speaker 1: continued Rouletabille, I saw no more of Monsieur Robert Darzac,
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  Speaker 1: and I was not to see him again until after
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  Speaker 1: the tragedy. At the Glandier, Mademoiselle was near mister Rance,
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  Speaker 1: who was talking with much animation, his eyes during the
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  Speaker 1: conversation glowing with a singular brightness. Mademoiselle Stangerson, I thought,
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  Speaker 1: was not even listening to what he was saying. Her
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  Speaker 1: face expressing perfect indifference. His face was the red face
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  Speaker 1: of a drunkard. When Monsieur and Mademoiselle Stangerson left, he
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  Speaker 1: went to the bar and remained there. I joined him
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  Speaker 1: and rendered him some little service in the midst of
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  Speaker 1: the pressing crowd. He thanked me and told me he
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  Speaker 1: was returning to America three days later, that is to say,
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  Speaker 1: on the twenty sixth, the day after the Prime. I
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  Speaker 1: talked with him about Philadelphia. He told me he had
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  Speaker 1: lived there for five and twenty years, and that it
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  Speaker 1: was there he had met the illustrious Professor Stangerson and
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  Speaker 1: his daughter. He drank a great deal of champagne, and
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  Speaker 1: when I left him he was very nearly drunk. Such
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  Speaker 1: were my experiences on that evening, And I leave you
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  Speaker 1: to imagine what effect the news of the attempted murder
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  Speaker 1: of Mademoiselle Stangerson produced on me. With what force those
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  Speaker 1: words pronounced by Monsieur Robert Darzac, must I commit a
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  Speaker 1: crime then to win you? Recurred to me. It was
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  Speaker 1: not this phrase, however, that I repeated to him when
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  Speaker 1: we met here at Glandier. The sentence of the Presbytery
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  Speaker 1: and the Bright Garden sufficed to open the gate of
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  Speaker 1: the chateau. If you ask me if I believe now
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  Speaker 1: that Monsieur Darzac is the murderer, I must say that
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  Speaker 1: I do not. I do not think. I ever quite
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  Speaker 1: thought that. At the time, I could not really think
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  Speaker 1: seriously of anything. I had so little evidence to go on,
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  Speaker 1: but I needed to have at once the proof that
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  Speaker 1: he had not been wounded in the hand. When we
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  Speaker 1: were alone together, I told him how I had chanced
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  Speaker 1: to overhear a part of his conversation with Mademoiselle Stangerson
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  Speaker 1: in the garden of the Lizee, and when I repeated
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  Speaker 1: to him the words must I commit a crime then
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  Speaker 1: to win you? He was greatly troubled, though much less
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  Speaker 1: so than he had been by hearing me repeat the
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  Speaker 1: phrase about the presbytery. What threw him into a state
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  Speaker 1: of real consternation was to learn from me that the
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  Speaker 1: day on which he had gone to meet Mademoiselle Stangerson
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  Speaker 1: at the Elizee was the very day on which he
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  Speaker 1: had gone to the post office for the letter. It
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  Speaker 1: was that letter, perhaps, which ended with the words the
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: presbytery has lost nothing of its charm, nor the garden
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  Speaker 1: its brightness. My surmise was confirmed by my finding. If
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  Speaker 1: you remember in the ashes of the laboratory the fragment
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  Speaker 1: of paper dated October twenty third, the letter had been
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  Speaker 1: written and withdrawn from the post office on the same day.
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  Speaker 1: There can be no doubt that, on returning from the
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  Speaker 1: Elize that night, Mademoiselle Stangerson had tried to destroy that
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  Speaker 1: compromising paper. It was in vain that Monsieur Darzac denied
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  Speaker 1: that that letter had anything whatever to do with the crime.
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  Speaker 1: I told him that in an affair so filled with
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  Speaker 1: mystery as this, he had no right to hide this letter.
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  Speaker 1: That I was persuaded. It was of considerable importance that
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  Speaker 1: the desperate tone in which Mademoiselle Stangerson had pronounced, the
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  Speaker 1: prophetic phrase that his own tears, and the threat of
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  Speaker 1: a crime which he had professed after the letter was read,
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  Speaker 1: all these facts tended to leave no room for me
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  Speaker 1: to doubt. Monsieur Darzac became more and more agitated, and
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  Speaker 1: I determined to take advantage of the effect I had
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  Speaker 1: produced on him. You are on the point of being married, monsieur,
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  Speaker 1: I said, negligently and without looking at him, And suddenly
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  Speaker 1: your marriage becomes impossible because of the writer of that letter,
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  Speaker 1: because as soon as his letter was read, you spoke
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  Speaker 1: of the necessity for a crime to win Mademoiselle Stangerson. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: there is some one between you and her, someone who
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  Speaker 1: has attempted to kill her so that she should not
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  Speaker 1: be able to marry. And I concluded with these words.
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  Speaker 1: And now, monsieur, you have only to tell me in
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  Speaker 1: confidence the name of the murderer. The words I had
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  Speaker 1: uttered must have struck him ominously, for when I turned
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  Speaker 1: my eyes on him, I saw that his face was haggard,
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  Speaker 1: the perspiration standing on his forehead, and terror showing in
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  Speaker 1: his eyes. Monsieur, he said to me, I am going
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  Speaker 1: to ask of you something which may appear insane, but
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  Speaker 1: in exchange for which I placed my life in your hands,
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  Speaker 1: you must not tell the magistrates of what you saw
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  Speaker 1: and heard in the garden of the Elis, neither to
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  Speaker 1: them nor to anybody. I swear to you that I
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  Speaker 1: am innocent, and I know I feel that you believe me.
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  Speaker 1: But I would rather be taken for the guilty man
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  Speaker 1: than see justice go astray. On that phrase, the Presbyteria
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  Speaker 1: has lost nothing of its charm, nor the garden its brightness.
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  Speaker 1: The judges must know nothing about that phrase. All this
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  Speaker 1: matter is in your hands, Monsieur. I leave it there,
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  Speaker 1: But forget the evening at the Lizae. A hundred other
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: roads are open for you in your search for the criminal.
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  Speaker 1: I will open them for you myself. I will help you.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: Will you take up your quarters here. You may remain
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: here to do as you please. Eat, sleep, here, watch
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  Speaker 1: my actions, the actions of all here. You shall be
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: master of the Glandier, monsieur, But forget the evening at
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  Speaker 1: the Laize. Rouletabille here paused to take breath. I now
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  Speaker 1: understood what had appeared so unexplainable in the demeanor of
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Monsieur Robert Darzac was my friend, and the facility with
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: which the young reporter had been able to install himself
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  Speaker 1: on the scene of the crime. My curiosity could not
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: fail to be excited by all I had heard. I
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: asked Rouletabille to satisfy it still further, what had happened
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: at the Glandier during the past week. Had he not
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: told me that there were surface indications against Monsieur Darzac
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: much more terrible than that of the king found by Lawson.
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  Speaker 1: Everything seems to be pointing against him, replied my friend,
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  Speaker 1: and the situation is becoming exceedingly grave. Monsieur Darzac appears
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: not to mind it much, but in that he is wrong.
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  Speaker 1: I was interested only in the health of Mademoiselle Stangerson,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: which was daily improving. When something occurred that is even
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: more mysterious than than the mystery of the yellow room. Impossible,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: I cried, what could be more mysterious than that? I
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: let us first go back to Monsieur Robert Darzac, said Rouletabille, calmingly.
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  Speaker 1: I have said that everything seems to be pointing against him.
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  Speaker 1: The marks of the neat boots frowned by Frederic Lawson
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  Speaker 1: appeared to be really the footprints of Mademoiselle Stangerson's fiance.
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  Speaker 1: The marks made by the bicycle may have been made
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  Speaker 1: by his bicycle. He had usually left it at the chateau.
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  Speaker 1: Why did he take it to Paris on that particular occasion?
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  Speaker 1: Was it because he was not going to return again
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  Speaker 1: to the chateau. Was it because, owing to the breaking
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  Speaker 1: off of his marriage, his relations with the Stangersons were
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  Speaker 1: to cease. All who are interested in the matter affirmed
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: that those relations were to continue unchanged. Frederic Lawson, however,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: believes that all relations were at a end from the
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: day when Monsieur Darzac accompanied Mademoiselle Stangerson to the Grand
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  Speaker 1: Magasine's de la Louve until the day after the crime.
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  Speaker 1: He had not been at the Glandier. Remember that Mademoiselle
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Stangerson lost her reticule containing the key with the brass
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  Speaker 1: head while she was in his company. From that day
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: to the evening at the LSA, the Sorbonne professor and
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle Stangerson did not see one another, but they may
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: have written to each other. Mademoiselle Stangerson went to the
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  Speaker 1: post office to get a letter which Lawson says was
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  Speaker 1: written by Robert Darzac. For knowing nothing of what had
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  Speaker 1: passed at the Elizee, Lawson believed that it was Monsieur
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Darzac himself who stole the reticule with the key, with
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: the design of forcing her consent by getting possession of
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: the precious papers of her father, papers which he would
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: have restored to him on condition that the marriage engagement
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: was to be fulfilled. All that would have been a
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: very doubtful and almost absurd hypothesis. As Lawson admitted to me,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: but for another and much graver circumstance. In the first place,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: here is something which I have not been able to explain.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Monsieur Darzac had himself, on the twenty fourth gone to
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: the post office to ask for the letter which Mademoiselle
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: had called for and received on the previous evening. The
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: description of the man who made application tallies in every
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: respect with the appearance of Monsieur Darzac, who, in answer
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: to the questions put to him by the examining Magistrate,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: denies that he went to the post office, now even
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: admitting that the letter was written by him, which I
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: do not believe. He knew that Mademoiselle Stangerson had received it,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: since he had seen it in her hands in the
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: garden at the Laiseee. It could not have been he, then,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: who had gone to the post office the day after
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: the twenty fourth to ask for a letter which he
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: knew was no longer there. To me, it appears clear
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: that somebody strongly resembling him stole Mademoiselle Stangerson's reticule, and
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: in that letter had demanded of her something which she
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: had not sent him. He must have been surprised at
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: the failure of his demand, hence his application at the
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: post office to learn whether his letter had been delivered
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: to the person to whom it had been addressed. Finding
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: that it had been claimed, he had become furious. What
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: had he demanded? Nobody but Mademoiselle Stangerson knows. Then, On
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: the day following it is reported that she has been
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: attacked during the night, and the next day I discovered
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: that the professor had, at the same time been robbed
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: by means of the key referred to in the post restant.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: It would seem then that the man who went to
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: the post office to inquire for the letter must have
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: been the murderer. All these arguments lost and applies as
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: against Monsieur Darzac. You may be sure that the examining
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Magistrate Lawson and myself have done our best to get
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: from the post office precise details relative to the singular
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: personage who applied there on the twenty fourth of October,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: But nothing has been learned. We don't know where he
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: came from or where he went. Beyond the description which
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: makes him resemble Monsieur Darzac. We know nothing. I have
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: announced in the leading journals that a handsome reward would
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: be given to a driver of any public conveyance who
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: drove a fare to No. Forty Post Office about ten
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: o'clock on the morning of the twenty fourth of October.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Information to be addressed to m R at the Office
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: of the Epoch, But no answer has resulted. The man
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: may have walked, but as he was most likely in
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: a hurry, there was a chance that he might have
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: gone in a cab. Who I keep asking myself night
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: and day is the man who so strongly resembles Monsieur
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Robert Darzac, and who was also known to have bought
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: the keene which has fallen into Larson's hands. The most
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: serious fact is that Monsieur Darzac was at the very
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: same time that his double presented himself at the post office,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: scheduled for a lecture at the Saubonne. He had not
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: delivered that lecture, and one of his friends took his place.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: When I questioned him as to how he had employed
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: the time, he told me that he had gone for
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: a stroll in the Bois de Boulogne. What do you
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: think of a professor who, instead of giving his lecture
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: obtains a substitute to go for a stroll in the
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Bois de Boulogne. When Frederic Lawsan asked him for information
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: on this point, he quietly replied that it was no
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: business of his how he spent his time in Paris,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: on which fred swore aloud that he would find out
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: without anybody's help. All this seems to fit in with
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Fred's hypothesis, namely that Monsieur Stangerson allowed the murderer to
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: escape in order to avoid a scandal. The hypothesis is
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: further substantiated by the fact that Darzac was in the
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Yellow Room and was permitted to get away. That hypothesis,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: I believe to be a false one. Lawson is being
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: misled by it. And though that would not displease me,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: did it not affect an innocent person? Now? Does that
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: hypothesis really mislead Frederic Lawson? That is the question, That
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: is the question. Perhaps he is right, I cried, interrupting Rouletabille.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: Are you sure that Monsieur Darzac is in a discent?
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: It seems to me that these are extraordinary coincidences. Coincidences,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: replied my friend are the worst enemies to truth. What
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: does the examining magistrate think now of the matter? Monsieur
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: de Marquy hesitates to accuse Monsieur Darzac in the absence
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: of absolute proofs. Not only would he have public opinion
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: wholly against him, to say nothing of the Sorbonne, but
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Monsieur and Mademoiselle Stangerson she adores Monsieur Robert Darzac indistinctly
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: as she saw the murderer. It would be hard to
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: make the public believe that she could not have recognized
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: him if Darzac had been the criminal, No doubt, the
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: yellow room was very dimly lit. But a night light,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: however small, gives some light. Here, my boy, is how
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: things stood when three days, or rather three nights ago,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: an extraordinarily strange incident occurred. End of Chapter thirteen. Recording
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: by Gloria's Obliquy Floral Park, New York Look