Gaston Leroux: The Mystery of the Yellow Room

CHAPTER 3: "A Man Has Passed Like a Shadow Through the Blinds" (continued)

"Oh, you may rely on my discretion!" cried Rouletabille.

The train was in motion.

"We have started!" said the examining magistrate, surprised at seeing us still in the carriage.

"Yes, Monsieur, - truth has started," said Rouletabile, smiling amiably, - "on its way to the Chateau du Glandier. A fine case, Monsieur de Marquet, - a fine case!"

"An obscure - incredible, unfathomable, inexplicable affair - and there is only one thing I fear, Monsieur Rouletabille, - that the journalists will be trying to explain it."

My friend felt this a rap on his knuckles.

"Yes," he said simply, "that is to be feared. They meddle in everything. As for my interest, monsieur, I only referred to it by mere chance, - the mere chance of finding myself in the same train with you, and in the same compartment ofthe same carriage."

"Where are you going, then?" asked Monsieur de Marquet.

"To the Chateau du Glandier," replied Rouletabille, without turnimg.

"You'll not get in, Monsieur Rouletabile!"

"Will you prevent me?" said my friend, already prepared to fight.

"Not I! - I like the press and journalists too well to be in any way disagreeable to them; but Monsieur Stangerson has given orders for his door to be closed against everybody, and it is well guarded. Not a journalist was able to pass through the gate of the Glandier yesterday."

Monsieur de Marquet compressed his lips and seemed ready to relapse into obstinate silence. He only relaxed a little when Rouletabille no longer left him in ignorance of the fact that we were going to the Glandier for the purpose of shaking hands with an "old and intimate friend," Monsieur Robert Darzac - a man whom Rouletabille had perhaps seen once in his life.