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"You did not ask for particulars on any point which appeared to you to be crucial?" "I asked about Stangerson." "Nothing else? Is there no circumstance on which this whole case appears to hinge? Will you not telegraph again?" "I have said all I have to say," said Gregson, in an offended voice.
Having once decided to speak, I will tell you all without omitting any particular. "'It is your wisest course, said I. "'Mr. Drebber has been with us nearly three weeks. He and his secretary, Mr. Stangerson, had been travelling on the Continent. I noticed a "Copenhagen" label upon each of their trunks, showing that that had been their last stopping place.
Jean Roussel was but another of the many names under which the notorious Ballmeyer, a fugitive from France, tried to hide himself. Monsieur Stangerson did not know of his identity with Ballmeyer; he learned that the man was simply undesirable for his daughter. He not only refused to give his consent to the marriage but denied him admission into the house.
"Monsieur Darzac! in the name of the law, I arrest you!" The magistrate had no sooner pronounced the words than I saw Rouletabille move quickly towards Monsieur Darzac. He would certainly have spoken to him, but Darzac, by a gesture, held him off. As the gendarme approached his prisoner, a despairing cry rang through the room: "Robert! Robert!" We recognised the voice of Mademoiselle Stangerson.
In their distress of mind Monsieur Stangerson and the concierge may not have noticed they were bearing a double weight; especially if the concierge were an accomplice! I throw out this hypothesis for what it is worth, but it explains many things, and particularly the fact that neither the laboratory nor the vestibule bear any traces of the footmarks found in the room.
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.
"Now, Monsieur Stangerson," said Monsieur de Marquet, with somewhat of an important air, "place yourself exactly where you were when Mademoiselle Stangerson left you to go to her chamber."
"I admire you for your silence," said Rouletabille, "but if Mademoiselle Stangerson knew of your danger, she would release you from your oath. She would beg of you to tell all she has confided to you. She would be here to defend you!" Monsieur Darzac made no movement, nor uttered a word. He looked at Rouletabille sadly.
Rouletabille drew a piece of white folded paper from his pocket, and drew out of it an almost invisible object which he held between his thumb and forefinger. "This, Monsieur President," he said, "is a hair a blond hair stained with blood; it is a hair from the head of Mademoiselle Stangerson. I found it sticking to one of the corners of the overturned table.
Among the mass of papers, legal documents, memoirs, and extracts from newspapers, which I have collected, relating to the mystery of The Yellow Room, there is one very interesting piece; it is a detail of the famous examination which took place that afternoon, in the laboratory of Professor Stangerson, before the Chief of the Surete.
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