Gaston Leroux: The Mystery of the Yellow Room

CHAPTER 2: In Which Joseph Rouktabille Appears for the First Time (continued)

"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."

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*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.

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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: