were,
and the door of which must have been locked by Mademoiselle Stangerson
herself if, as I thought, she had taken refuge in the boudoir for the
purpose of avoiding the murderer who was coming to see her. In any case,
he must return to the gallery where my people were awaiting him at every
possible exit.

"On coming there, he would see on his left, Monsieur Stangerson; he
would turn to the right, towards the 'off-turning' gallery--the way
he had pre-arranged for flight, where, at the intersection of the two
galleries, he would see at once, as I have explained, on his left,
Frederic Larsan at the end of the 'off-turning' gallery, and in front,
Daddy Jacques, at the end of the 'right' gallery. Monsieur Stangerson
and myself would arrive by way of the back of the chateau.--He is
ours!--He can no longer escape us! I was sure of that.

"The plan I had formed seemed to me the best, the surest, and the most
simple. It would, no doubt, have been simpler still, if we had been able
to place some one directly behind the door of Mademoiselle's boudoir,
which opened out of her bedchamber, and, in that way, had been in a
position to besiege the two doors of the room in which the man was. But
we could not penetrate the boudoir except by way of the drawing-room,
the door of which had been locked on the inside by Mademoiselle
Stangerson. But even if I had had the free disposition of the boudoir,
I should have held to the plan I had formed; because any other plan of
attack would have separated us at the moment of the struggle with the
man, while my plan united us all for the attack, at a spot which I had
selected with almost mathematical precision,--the intersection of the
two galleries.

"Having so placed my people, I again left the chateau, hurried to my
ladder, and, replacing it, climbed up, revolver in hand.

"If there be any inclined to smile at my taking so many precautionary
measures, I refer them to the mystery of The Yellow Room, and to all the
proofs we have of the weird cunning of the murderer. Further, if there
be some who think my observations needlessly minute at a moment when
they ought to be completely held by rapidity of movement and decision
of action, I reply that I have wished to report here, at length and
completely, all the details of a plan of attack conceived so rapidly
that it is only the slowness of my pen that gives an appearance
of slowness to the execution. I have wished, by this slowness and
precision