itre Robert took
advantage of the incident, and tried to show that it brought out in
noble relief his client's character; for only heroic natures could
remain silent for moral reasons in face of such a danger. The eminent
advocate however, only succeeded in assuring those who were already
assured of Darzac's innocence. At the adjournment Rouletabille had not
yet arrived. Every time a door opened, all eyes there turned towards it
and back to the manager of the "Epoque," who sat impassive in his place.
When he once was feeling in his pocket a loud murmur of expectation
followed. The letter!

It is not, however, my intention to report in detail the course of
the trial. My readers are sufficiently acquainted with the mysteries
surrounding the Glandier case to enable me to go on to the really
dramatic denouement of this ever-memorable day.

When the trial was resumed, Maitre Henri Robert questioned Daddy Mathieu
as to his complicity in the death of the keeper. His wife was also
brought in and was confronted by her husband. She burst into tears and
confessed that she had been the keeper's mistress, and that her husband
had suspected it. She again, however, affirmed that he had had nothing
to do with the murder of her lover. Maitre Henri Robert thereupon asked
the court to hear Frederic Larsan on this point.

"In a short conversation which I have had with Frederic Larsan, during
the adjournment," declared the advocate, "he has made me understand that
the death of the keeper may have been brought about otherwise than by
the hand of Mathieu. It will be interesting to hear Frederic Larsan's
theory."

Frederic Larsan was brought in. His explanation was quite clear.

"I see no necessity," he said, "for bringing Mathieu in this. I
have told Monsieur de Marquet that the man's threats had biassed
the examining magistrate against him. To me the attempt to murder
Mademoiselle and the death of the keeper are the work of one and the
same person. Mademoiselle Stangerson's murderer, flying through the
court, was fired on; it was thought he was struck, perhaps killed. As
a matter of fact, he only stumbled at the moment of his disappearance
behind the corner of the right wing of the chateau. There he encountered
the keeper who, no doubt, tried to seize him. The murderer had in his
hand the knife with which he had stabbed Mademoiselle Stangerson and
with this he killed the keeper."

This very simple explanation appeared at once plausibl