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The Mystery of the Yellow Room Chapter 23 - The Double Scent · The Gaston Leroux Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty three of the Mystery of the Yellow Room.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more free audiobooks are to volunteer,
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  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. The Mystery of the Yellow
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  Speaker 1: Room by Gaston le Roux, Chapter twenty three, The double
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  Speaker 1: sent I had hardly recovered from the surprise into which
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  Speaker 1: this new discovery had plunged me when Hultabille touched me
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  Speaker 1: on the shoulder and asked me to follow him into
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  Speaker 1: his room. What are we going to do there to
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  Speaker 1: think the matter over? I confess I was in no
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  Speaker 1: condition for doing much thinking, Nor could I understand how
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  Speaker 1: Hultabille could so control himself as to be able calmly
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  Speaker 1: to sit down for reflection, when he must have known
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  Speaker 1: that Mademoiselle's stranger son was at that moment almost on
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  Speaker 1: the point of death. But his self control was more
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  Speaker 1: than I could explain. Closing the door of his room,
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  Speaker 1: he motioned me to a chair, and, seating himself before me,
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  Speaker 1: took out his pipe. We sat there for some time
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  Speaker 1: in silence, and then I fell asleep. When I awoke
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  Speaker 1: it was daylight. It was eight o'clock. By my watch,
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  Speaker 1: all Taby was no longer in the room. I rose
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  Speaker 1: to go out. When the door opened and my friend
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  Speaker 1: re entered. He had evidently lost no time. How about
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  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle Strangerson, I asked him. Her condition, though very alarming,
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  Speaker 1: is not desperate. When did you leave this room towards dawn?
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  Speaker 1: I guess you have been hard at work. Rather, have
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  Speaker 1: you found out anything? Two sets of footprints? Do they
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  Speaker 1: explain anything? Yes? Have they anything to do with the
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  Speaker 1: mystery of the keeper's body? Yes? The mystery is no
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  Speaker 1: longer a mystery. This morning, walking round the chateau, I
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  Speaker 1: found two distinct sets of footprints, made at the same
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  Speaker 1: time last night. They were made by two persons walking
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  Speaker 1: side by side. I followed them from the court towards
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  Speaker 1: the oak grove. Larson joined me. They were the same
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  Speaker 1: kind of footprints as were made at the time of
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  Speaker 1: the assault in the Yellow room. One set was from
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  Speaker 1: clumsy boots and the other was made by neat ones,
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  Speaker 1: except that the big two of one of the sets
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  Speaker 1: was of a different size from the one measured in
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  Speaker 1: the Yellow room incident. I compared the marks with the
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  Speaker 1: paper patterns I had previously made still, following the tracks
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  Speaker 1: of the Prince, Larson and I passed out of the
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  Speaker 1: oak grove and reached the border of the lake. There
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  Speaker 1: they turned off to a little path leading to the
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  Speaker 1: high road to Epinay, where we lost the traces in
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  Speaker 1: the newly macadamized highway. We went back to the chateau
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  Speaker 1: and parted at the courtyard. We met again, however, in
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  Speaker 1: Daddy Jacques's room, to which our separate trains of thinking
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  Speaker 1: had led us. Both we found the old servant in bed.
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  Speaker 1: His clothes on the chair were wet through and his
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  Speaker 1: boots very muddy. He certainly did not get into that
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  Speaker 1: state in helping us to carry the body of the keeper.
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  Speaker 1: It was not raining. Then. Then his face showed extreme fatigue,
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  Speaker 1: and he looked at us out of terror stricken eyes.
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  Speaker 1: On our first questioning him, he told us that he
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  Speaker 1: had gone to bed immediately after the doctor had arrived.
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  Speaker 1: On pressing him, however, for it was evident to us
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  Speaker 1: he was not speaking the truth, he confessed that he
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  Speaker 1: had been away from the chateau. He explained his absence
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  Speaker 1: by saying that he had a headache and went out
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  Speaker 1: into the fresh air, but had gone no farther than
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  Speaker 1: the oak grove. When we then described to him the
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  Speaker 1: whole route he had followed, he set up in bed, trembling.
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  Speaker 1: And you were not alone, cried Larson. Did you see it? Then,
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  Speaker 1: gasped Daddy Jacques. What I asked the phantom? The black Phantom.
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  Speaker 1: Then he told us that for several nights he had
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  Speaker 1: seen what he kept calling the black Phantom. It came
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  Speaker 1: into the park at the stroke of midnight and glided
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  Speaker 1: stealthily through the trees. It appeared to him to pass
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  Speaker 1: through the trunks of the tree. Twice. He had seen
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  Speaker 1: it from his window by the light of the moon,
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  Speaker 1: and had risen and followed the strange apparition. The night
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  Speaker 1: before last he had almost overtaken it, but it had
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  Speaker 1: vanished at the corner of the dongeon. Last night, however,
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  Speaker 1: he had not left the chateau, his mind being disturbed
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  Speaker 1: by a presentiment that some new crime would be attempted.
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  Speaker 1: Suddenly he saw the black Phantom rush out from somewhere
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  Speaker 1: in the middle of the court. He followed it to
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  Speaker 1: the lake and to the high road to Epinay, where
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  Speaker 1: the phantom suddenly disappeared. Did you see his face? Demanded Larson, No,
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  Speaker 1: I saw nothing but black veils. Did you go out
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  Speaker 1: after what passed on the gallery? I could not. I
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  Speaker 1: was terrified, Daddy Jacques, I said, in a threatening voice.
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  Speaker 1: You did not follow it. You and the phantom walked
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  Speaker 1: to Epinae together, arm in arm. No, he cried, turning
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  Speaker 1: his eyes away. I did not. It came on to
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  Speaker 1: poor and I turned back. I don't know what became
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  Speaker 1: of the black phantom. We left him, and when we
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  Speaker 1: were outside, I turned to Larson, looking him full in
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  Speaker 1: the face, and put my question. Suddenly to take him
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  Speaker 1: off his guard? An accomplice? How can I tell? He replied,
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  Speaker 1: shrugging his shoulders. You can't be sure of anything in
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  Speaker 1: a case like this. Twenty four hours ago, I would
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  Speaker 1: have sworn that there was no accomplice. He left me,
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  Speaker 1: saying he was off to Epinae. Well, what do you
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  Speaker 1: make of it? I asked Rouletabille, after he had ended
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  Speaker 1: his recital, personally. I am utterly in the dark. I
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  Speaker 1: can't make anything out of it. What do you gather? Everything? Everything,
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  Speaker 1: he exclaimed, But he said abruptly, let's find out more
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  Speaker 1: about Mademoiselle stranger Son. End of chapter twenty three recording
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  Speaker 1: by ISOA in Belgium in August two thousand and eight.