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It was easy to see that the scene had strongly impressed Rouletabille in favour of Monsieur Robert Darzac; while, to Larsan, it showed nothing but consummate hypocrisy, acted with finished art by Mademoiselle Stangerson's fiance. As we reached the park gate, Larsan stopped us. "My cane!" he cried. "I left it near the tree." He left us, saying he would rejoin us presently.
"Poor Robert!" continued the young reporter, "this dreadful affair may be his death, he is so deeply in love with Mademoiselle Stangerson." "His sufferings are truly painful to witness," escaped like a regret from the lips of Monsieur de Marquet. "But it is to be hoped that Mademoiselle Stangerson's life will be saved." "Let us hope so.
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.
I love and esteem Monsieur Darzac both for his greatness of heart and for his devotion to science. But, two days before the tragedy, for I know not what reason, my daughter declared to me that she would never marry Monsieur Darzac." A dead silence followed Monsieur Stangerson's words. It was a moment fraught with suspense.
"Bah!" cried Rouletabille, "the murderer was wounded in the hand by Mademoiselle Stangerson's revolver!" "Ah! a simply instinctive observation! Take care! You are becoming too strictly logical, Monsieur Rouletabille; logic will upset you if you use it indiscriminately.
"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.
"'In Mademoiselle Stangerson's room. "'And Mademoiselle Stangerson? "'She is not in there. "'Let's go in. "'Don't go there! On the least alarm the man will escape. He has four ways by which to do it the door, the window, the boudoir, or the room in which the women are sleeping. "'I'll draw him from below. "'And if you fail?
"How do you explain that, on the night of the murder of the keeper," the President asked, turning to Rouletabille, "the murderer brought back the papers stolen from Monsieur Stangerson? How do you explain how the murderer gained entrance into Mademoiselle Stangerson's locked room?" "The last question is easily answered. A man like Larsan, or Ballmeyer, could have had made duplicate keys.
"He has done well not to come in here to-day!" he hissed. "Who is that man?" asked Rouletabille, returning to his omelette. "The Green Man," growled the innkeeper. "Don't you know him? Then all the better for you. He is not an acquaintance to make. Well, he is Monsieur Stangerson's forest-keeper."
What were these evidences? "1st. I had seen the unknown in Mademoiselle Stangerson's chamber. On going to Frederic Larsan's room, I had found Larsan sound asleep. "2nd. The ladder. "3rd. I had placed Frederic Larsan at the end of the 'off-turning' gallery and had told him that I would rush into Mademoiselle Stangerson's room to try to capture the murderer.
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