Gaston Leroux: The Mystery of the Yellow Room

CHAPTER 8: The Examining Magistrate Questions Mademoiselle Stangerson (continued)

"M. Stangerson. Good Heavens! - I think not. It was only when we returned to the pavilion at six o'clock, that we decided, my daughter and I, to dine there. At that moment I was spoken to by my gamekeeper, who detained me a moment, to ask me to accompany him on an urgent tour of inspection in a part of the woods which I had decided to thin. I put this off until the next day, and begged him, as he was going by the chateau, to tell the steward that we should dine in the laboratory. He left me, to execute the errand and I rejoined my daughter, who was already at work.

"Q. At what hour, mademoiselle, did you go to your chamber while your father continued to work there?

"A. At midnight.

"Q. Did Daddy Jacques enter The Yellow Room in the course of the evening?

"A. To shut the blinds and light the night-light.

"Q. He saw nothing suspicious?

"A. He would have told us if he had seen. Daddy Jacques is an honest man and very attached to me.

"Q. You affirm, Monsieur Stangerson, that Daddy Jacques remained with you all the time you were in the laboratory?

"M. Stangerson. I am sure of it. I have no doubt of that.

"Q. When you entered your chamber, mademoiselle, you immediately shut the door and locked and bolted it? That was taking unusual precautions, knowing that your father and your servant were there? Were you in fear of something, then?

"A. My father would be returning to the chateau and Daddy Jacques would be going to his bed. And, in fact, I did fear something.

"Q. You were so much in fear of something that you borrowed Daddy Jacques's revolver without telling him you had done so?