The Mystery of the Yellow Room

stance from the building the reporter made us stop and, po

derer came from to ge

the murderer had chosen that one, rather than any of the others. Rouletabille answered m

een the pavilion and the chateau. As to the thicket, made of the sort of shrubs that don't flourish in the rough season-laurels and fuchsias-it offered the murderer a sufficient hiding-place until it was time for him to make his way to the pavilion. It was while hiding in that clump of trees that he saw Monsieur and Mademoiselle Stangerson, and then Daddy Jacques, leave the pavilio

is very poss

After all what?"

most simple problems, risking nothing by saying "that is so, or 'that is not so." Their intelligence would have produced about the same result if nature had forgotten to furnish

a thing is possible, when it could not be otherwise. We know now how the man entered by the window, and we also know the moment at which he entered,-during the five o'clock walk of the professor and his daughter. The fact of the presence of the chambermaid-who had come to clean up "The Yel

sure of the chambermaid's fidelity, and that

ck Monsieur Stangerson went into th

t also," said

" I said; "but why did he shut the window? It was an act which wo

did shut the window, it was because of the bend in the gravel path, a dozen yards

who had followed us and listened with almost brea

t to be ripe for doing so; but I don't think I have anything of mor

is your hy

e truth. It is of much too grave a nature to speak of

, some idea as to w

murderer is; but don't be afraid,

n was not pleasing to him. Why, I asked myself, if he was really afraid that the murderer should be discovered, was h

you want me to find ou

wn hand!" cried Mademoiselle Stangerson'

abille gravely; "but you hav

n to us a minute before. I entered it and pointed out evident traces

ng of flesh and blood, who uses the same means

print which he had given me to take care of, and applied it to

e vestibule window; but he led us instead, far to the left, saying that it was usele

which he jumped. See, just in front of the little path

now he went t

the borders of it since this morning. T

later we rea

es. The great Fred may have seen us approaching, but we probably interested him very little, for he to

n; they skirt the lake here and finally disappear just before this path, wh

asked, "since these footmarks

cted to find!" he cried, pointing to the sharply outlined imp

prints seem to have been made s

," replied Fred without raising his head. "You see,

a bicycle!" cri

cle, which followed, going and coming, the n

s rough boots, mounted a bicycle. His accomplice, the wearer of the neat boots, had come to wait for him o

I have expected to find these footmarks from the very

here we

t one, and he ha

y good!" cried

and then no doubt, taking them away with him, he stood up in his own boots, and quietly and slowly regained the high road, holding his bicycle in his hand, for he could not venture to ride it on this rough path. That accounts for the light

uddenly towards us and, planting himself in fr

rectness of the young man's reasoning, Monsieur Robert

I took mine, four days ago, to Paris, the last

he said: "If we go on at this rate, we'll both come to the same conclusio

young friend; "

o two ways of reasoning in this affair. I am waiting for the arrival o

hief of the S

the laboratory, all those who have played any part in this tragedy. It

nt," said Rouleta

didn't follow your instincts and that bump on your forehead. As I have already several times observed, Monsieur Rouletabille, you reason too much; you do not allow yourself to be guided by

rderer was wounded in the hand by

bille; logic will upset you if you use it indiscriminately. You are right, when you say that Mademoiselle

f it," cried

urbable, int

stains, the impression of drops which I found in the tracks of the footprints, at the moment when they were made on t

usly. However, I could not refra

Fred, who looked gravely at him

d his hand on the wall. The fact is highly important," he added, "because t

be thinking deeply. A

d ideas. You, already, have your idea about the murderer, Monsieur Fred. Don't deny it; and your theory demands that the murderer should not have been wounded in the hand, otherwise it comes to nothing. And you have searched, and h

ng tone, his hands in his pockets, Rouletabi

to be as wise as himself. Shrugging his shoulders, he bowed to us and

at, and then turned toward us,

shall beat the great Fred, clever

xed on Monsieur Robert Darzac, who was looking anxiously at the impression left by his feet

ovement, twitched at the beard that covered his honest, gentle, and now despairing face. At length regaining his self

exclaimed R

that were on the ground. Then he fitted the new paper pattern with the one he had previously made-the two were exactly alike. Rising, Rouletabille exclaimed again: "The deuce!" Presently