altogether he
appeared to be in a state of extreme excitement. He waved the "Matin"
with a trembling hand, and cried:

"Well, my dear Sainclair,--have you read it?"

"The Glandier crime?"

"Yes; The Yellow Room!--What do you think of it?"

"I think that it must have been the Devil or the Bete du Bon Dieu that
committed the crime."

"Be serious!"

"Well, I don't much believe in murderers* who make their escape through
walls of solid brick. I think Daddy Jacques did wrong to leave behind
him the weapon with which the crime was committed and, as he occupied
the attic immediately above Mademoiselle Stangerson's room, the
builder's job ordered by the examining magistrate will give us the key
of the enigma and it will not be long before we learn by what natural
trap, or by what secret door, the old fellow was able to slip in and
out, and return immediately to the laboratory to Monsieur Stangerson,
without his absence being noticed. That, of course, is only an
hypothesis."

*Although the original English translation often uses the words
"murder" and "murderer," the reader may substitute "attack" and
"attacker" since no murder is actually committed.

Rouletabille sat down in an armchair, lit his pipe, which he was never
without, smoked for a few minutes in silence--no doubt to calm the
excitement which, visibly, dominated him--and then replied:

"Young man," he said, in a tone the sad irony of which I will not
attempt to render, "young man, you are a lawyer and I doubt not your
ability to save the guilty from conviction; but if you were a magistrate
on the bench, how easy it would be for you to condemn innocent
persons!--You are really gifted, young man!"

He continued to smoke energetically, and then went on:

"No trap will be found, and the mystery of The Yellow Room will become
more and more mysterious. That's why it interests me. The examining
magistrate is right; nothing stranger than this crime has ever been
known."

"Have you any idea of the way by which the murderer escaped?" I asked.

"None," replied Rouletabille--"none, for the present. But I have an idea
as to the revolver; the murderer did not use it."

"Good Heavens! By whom, then, was it used?"

"Why--by Mademoiselle Stangerson."

"I don't understand,--or rather, I have never understood," I said.

Rouletabille shrugged his shoulders.

"Is there nothing in this article in the 'Matin' by which you were
particularly struck?"

"Noth