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    The Mystery of the Yellow Room
    The Mystery of the Yellow Room
    The Mystery of the Yellow Room
    Ebook312 pages5 hours

    The Mystery of the Yellow Room

    By Gaston Leroux

    3.5/5

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    According to Wikipedia: "Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux (6 May 1868, Paris, France – 15 April 1927) was a French journalist and author of detective fiction. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera (Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, 1910), which has been made into several film and stage productions of the same name, such as the 1925 film starring Lon Chaney; and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical. It was also the basis of the 1990 novel Phantom by Susan Kay... He suddenly left journalism in 1907, and began writing fiction. In 1909, he and Arthur Bernède formed their own film company, Société des Cinéromans to simultaneously publish novels and turn them into films. He first wrote a mystery novel entitled Le mystère de la chambre jaune (1908; The Mystery of the Yellow Room), starring the amateur detective Joseph Rouletabille. Leroux's contribution to French detective fiction is considered a parallel to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's in the United Kingdom and Edgar Allan Poe's in America."
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSeltzer Books
    Release dateMar 1, 2018
    ISBN9781455317462
    Author

    Gaston Leroux

    Gaston Leroux was born in Paris in 1868. He grew up on the Normandy coast, where he developed a passion for fishing and sailing. Upon reaching adulthood, he qualified as a lawyer, but, upon his father's death, his received a large inheritance, and left the law to become a writer. He first found fame as an investigative reporter on L'Echo de Paris, and travelled the world in a variety of disguises, reporting on a wide range of topics from volcanic eruptions to palace revolutions. In 1907, he changed career once again, and started work as a novelist, finding critical and commercial success with works such as The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1907) and The Phantom of the Opera (1911). Leroux continued to be a prolific writer until his death in 1927 - the result of complications following an operation.

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    Reviews for The Mystery of the Yellow Room

    3.5/5

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    • 3/5
      Written originally in French, in 1908, this book is considered to be one of the very first locked-room mysteries. As i am a bit of a locked-room buff, this book went to the top of my TBR pile. Gaston Leroux is also the same man who wrote the famous Phantom of the Opera, which further ignited my curiosity.

      In the beginning i found the translation & names a bit awkward, but i soon adapted & got into the swing of the story. It also helped that i made up a list of characters & their relationship to each other.

      In short, a young reporter is sent to investigate the secrets of a well respected family & write a piece for his paper on the attempted murder of the daughter. The criminal tries to kill her and somehow manages to escape from her locked bedroom without being seen by her father & his assistant who were right outside. It is only a matter of time before he tries again. Everyone is baffled as to who he is and his motive. There are numerous twists & turns in the plot & for those who enjoy solving puzzles, Leroux drops many clues along the way.

      A quick read once you get into the rhythm of the book. I enjoyed the subtle french humour which Leroux injects into the story when comparing the young reporter & the older "famous" detective who has been assigned to the case. Solid 3.5 stars
    • 4/5
      "The presbytery has lost none of its charm; nor the garden its brightness."These enigmatic words are just one of the many tantalizing clues scattered throughout Gaston Leroux's famous detective novel, The Mystery of the Yellow Room. Published in serial form in 1907 and in its entirety in 1908, this book has become one of the pivotal works in the genre, and is the great-grandfather (or at least the great-uncle!) of all "locked room" mysteries. In an isolated chateau in the French countryside, the beautiful Mademoiselle Stangerson is attacked in her locked chamber. When her father and servant break into the room in response to her desperate cries for help, they find no trace of her assailant — though there is just one door, all the windows have grills, and there is nowhere in the small room for the would-be murderer to hide. It is a most perplexing case for the police... but not for the young reporter Joseph Rouletabille, who manages to insinuate himself into the household to unravel the baffling case. Many of the hallmarks of the mystery genre are present in this story. The tale is narrated by Rouletabille's friend St. Clair, who is very like Holmes' Watson: slow on the uptake and providing a perfect foil to the detective's genius. He is us, of course, carried along wondering at the detective's crazy fancies which all turn out to be spot-on. Naturally! In addition to the stock character of the clueless friend, Rouletabille also has a professional rival in the famous detective Frederic Larsan, who has been called in specially for the case. Rouletabille is keen to prove his mettle to the older and more experienced Larsan. Rouletabille's particular forte is not, like Holmes', a vast knowledge of the minutiae of crime-scene evidence. Rather, Rouletabille's methods are based on what he calls "pure reason," and on taking that reason "by the right end." Leroux, who is probably better known for The Phantom of the Opera, certainly has a gift for creating haunting ideas. There is something so creepy about his description of the "cry of the Good Lord's Beast," and the recurring hint of the "perfume of the Lady in Black" (which is the title of the book's sequel). Leroux is not afraid to hint at supernatural occurrences, but he never overdoes it and the result is quite pleasingly atmospheric. There are certainly several very improbable coincidences that happen along the way to make the mystery possible, but they are forgivable. This translation (which I believe is the older American one) has a few lamentable mistakes in grammar, with several dangling modifiers and awkward constructions. This translation also repeatedly calls Mlle. Stangerson's assailant "the murderer," though the term is technically incorrect according to the events of the story. I found it slightly annoying, but ignorable. I would have given this book four stars if it were not for these issues. I listened to this on audiobook, read by Robert Whitfield, and enjoyed his reading very much. I loved his French pronunciations of the characters' names. It's interesting to think that I absorbed this story in much the same fashion as it was first published: in serial form. I listened to it for an hour a day on my commute. The technology changes but the stories don't. I would recommend this to fans of mysteries, but not to those looking for a good place to start in the genre. I have a high tolerance for ramblers, and this narrative does ramble at times. But I'm looking forward to the next two books in the series; though Rouletabille lacks the straightforward charm of a Roderick Alleyn or Lord Peter Wimsey, I found his youthful exuberance and boldness amusing. And I confess, now I'm curious about the perfume of the Lady in Black! Overall, this is an enjoyable tale that keeps its secrets till the very end.
    • 3/5
      When I was about twelve, someone mentioned that this is the greatest locked room mystery ever written. Since then, I'd kept it in the back of my mind and was excited when I saw that it was in Project Gutenberg. But, in the end, the story is almost anticlimactic and the resolution seems completely artificial. I didn't guess the whodonit, which I often do, so it gets points for that. But, at the same time, it hardly felt like a mystery that anyone would have solved anyway. Perhaps at the time it was written, the audience would have been more accepting than me in 2012.
    • 3/5
      This is one of the classic ‘locked room’ mystery stories, that has prompted scores of imitations over the years, including John Dickson Carr’s homage, ‘The Hollow Man’. The basic premise is very simple: Mademoiselle Sangerson had retired to bed in The Yellow Room, which she locked behind her. Shortly afterwards she was heard screaming, having been grievously attacked. Her father, Professor Sangerson, and his servant come running to assist and find the room still locked from the inside. When they eventually gain access to the room they find the wounded woman, but no sign of her assailant. The strange circumstances of the attack excite the more sensational end of the press and the story becomes a talking point all around France. Frederick Larsan, most famous detective from the Surêté is appointed to investigate the case. In the meantime, however, ingenious journalist, Rouletabille, decides to launch his own investigation, accompanied by his friend Sainclair (who narrates the novel). Sainclair is suitably astonished and impressed throughout, in similar vein to Watson as companion to Sherlock Holmes. Sadly, the relationship between the super sleuth and sidekick is not developed with the same humorous scope that attends the Sherlock Holmes stories. The plot may be just as ingenious as anything that Conan Doyle came up with, (and I was certainly fooled, even though all the necessary clues are there), but it never quite gripped me much as I had thought it might.It is well written and (presumably) well translated – the version I read was definitely very readable, and had none of the drawbacks that often attend books from that period (it was published, I believe, in 1906)
    • 4/5
      I docked half a star for the not quite neat and tidy ending, but otherwise mostly enjoyed this. I liked the young journalist as the central character, competing with the stereotypical detective and their coming to different, competing conclusions. The murderer could have done things more wisely and logically in a few instances, where the author had him do some purposely contorted things in order to make events more mysterious; this device was a bit too transparent. I've an even greater appreciation for Agatha Christie now, who rose head and shoulders above this precedent. Rouletabille is a likeable character, but I don't think we'll be crossing paths again.
    • 4/5
      A smart, cleverly paced, and well-written thriller. I look forward to reading more of Leroux's Rouletabille mysteries after this one.
    • 3/5
      I expected something a little more from the resolution... not sure what though.
    • 2/5
      Finally I brought myself to finish the lauded short novel 'The Mystery of the Yellow Room' by Gaston Leroux. It is hailed as one of the most original works of mystery fiction written and has been named as one of the pioneers of the locked room genre. We are introduced to the young journalist Joseph Rouletabille who throws himself into the investigation of a mysterious murder at Chateau du Glandier. A murder that takes place in a room that has been locked from the inside with no possible means of escape. Right away we are introduced to one of the many plot holes in the novel. There is no murder. Miss Stangerson who is the target of the attack and who is discovered with a bump on her head in the room after she screams murder, isn't actually killed. In fact she is assaulted no less than three times in various forms and by the end of the novel she has gone quite insane but is still alive. Not once in the novel is poor Miss Stangerson properly interviewed and asked what happened. Furthermore she seems to never actually say anything anywhere in the novel. As the most prominent piece of evidence she is blatantly ignored, something even the most mysoginistic Victorian didn't do.The Mystery of the Yellow Room was first published as a novel in 1908, 40 years after Wilkie Collins published his mystery: The Moontone. I'm comparing Leroux's work to that of Collins because even though Collins was clearly experimenting with the genre, he had a much firmer grasp than Leroux ever did. Leroux breaks one of the most important rules in the mystery business: you have to give the reader all the information that is available to the detective before the reveal. In the case of the Yellow Room we are given everything we need to know, which is a large amount of information, after the explanation of the plot. Even though the mechanism by which the 'murder' is committed appears to be very mature and innovating, it relies on so many assumptions and improbable events that it loses much of it's entertainment value when it is finally revealed.It took me three weeks to finish this book. Most of that was spent trying to figure out who all the characters in the novel are and where they are at various times (the novel includes maps and diagrams that don't help). For someone who wrote the very human The Phantom of the Opera, the Yellow Room one has very few real people in it. Not only does the over enthusiastic detective not feel very human, he's not even remotely likable. Unlike Sherlock Holmes who was quite the unpleasant character who fascinates readers to this day.
    • 4/5
      An interesting look back to the beginnings of the mystery genre. There are a couple of points I'm not convinced really worked - especially if the character Larssen was as prominent and well-known as I thought he was supposed to be. Despite that, I still found the story to be engaging and challenging.
    • 4/5
      This is one of the most celebrated classic locked room mystery stories. A young lady, Mlle Stangerson, is assaulted and nearly killed in her locked bedchamber, from which there are no means of escape, but there is no one there when her father and a servant in a neighbouring room break into the bedchamber. The mystery is eventually solved by a very young newspaper reporter Joseph Rouletabille, after numerous convolutions and red herrings. The intellectualisation of the mystery is very clever, though Rouletabille as a character lacks the impact of a Sherlock Holmes or an Hercule Poirot, and I thought the story slightly dragged and became a little absurd in places. I noticed that Stangerson, the victim here, is also the name of one of the murder victims in the first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, published a few years before this novel. Deservedly a classic of the genre, despite its minor weaknesses. 4/5
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed The Mystery of the Yellow Room very much and I can certainly see why it is considered one of the classics of the mystery genre - and especially of the locked room.Joseph Rouletabille, the journalist from a French newspaper covering the mystery, is a very likeable and intelligent "detective." He matches his wits against one of the finest detectives from the Sûreté, Frederic Larsan.Although this book was written over 100 years ago, I did not feel that it was dated. Of course, there were none of the modern techniques at play, but this was a book of puzzles and intellect over modern science - the classic "whodunit."I obtained my copy from Project Gutenberg, an English translation from the original French, and although most of the story was translated very well, there were a few times when I was left wondering if the meaning of the original had come through correctly. Fortunately, this did not happen often and I was able to enjoy the book.I think I will definitely read more of Leroux's mysteries. I am interested in the further adventures of Joseph Rouletabille.
    • 3/5
      A woman, the daughter of a famous French professor, utters a chilling scream. She is locked into her bedroom, and by the time the door is broken down, she is found unconscious, almost dead, with a terrible head wound. But who could have been her attacker? He could have had no means of entering or exiting the room unseen, and the only clues he's left behind are his victim and a bloody handprint on the wall. The young reporter Joseph Rouletabille makes his way to the scene of the crime with the firm intention of solving the mystery. Slow and plodding step by slow and plodding step. This book is famous as having been is one of the first locked room mystery crime fiction novels, published in France in 1907. Agatha Christie was reportedly an admirer of the novel and early on in her writing career said she'd like to write something taking a similar approach. I was certainly intrigued at the beginning and found the various elements of the story intriguing, such as the place of the crime: a French château, and the main protagonists: a woman well passed her prime, working as a scientist and soon to be married; her suspected fiancé; Rouletabille, the 18-year-old journalist. I guess I don't have the makings of a locked room mystery fan, because I got bored with all the minute details of the story and found the ending anticlimactic at best.
    • 1/5
      I really wanted to like this book, but it seems to drag on and on without any conclusion and I eventually gave up and read the plot on Wikipedia and was glad I didn't finish since the ending seems very far fetched.
    • 4/5
      My husband bought this book for me for one of my Christmas gifts, and to tease me, he gave me a clue - phantom of the opera. I knew he had bought me books (easy to tell even in their wrapping paper), but since I had nothing on my list that had to do with that show or book, I was stumped. As soon as I unwrapped this one, though, I figured it out. Gaston Leroux, who knew that he wrote mystery books? Of course, I did put this book in my wish list, but that was because it was touted in another mystery novel as being a classic of the genre and I was curious; I never paid much attention to the author. After my moment of enlightenment, I read the synopsis on the back of the book to remind myself why I wanted this particular title - my wish list is ridiculously large - and was then very excited to have it.The story is a locked room mystery. That means that a crime, generally murder, is committed in a room that is lock and thoroughly secure from the inside, but when help arrives and breaks the door down, they only find the victim inside, no attacker. In this instance, the young lady assaulted is not killed, but near death, and yet the containment of the room is such that those who find her wonder if the villain couldn't have magically disappeared. Leroux's book is lauded as one of the best locked room mysteries available, and I agree.
    • 4/5
      This story holds up remarkably well, at least in part because the narrator is excellent :)
    • 4/5
      This mystery has an ingenious plot, even if certain elements are slightly implausible. The writing style is rather dry, but the story is very interesting—it reminds me of Poe's Dupin mysteries.
    • 3/5
      I have no ambition to be an author. An author is always something of a romancer, and God knows, the mystery of The Yellow Room is quite full enough of real tragic horror to require no aid from literary effects.Gaston Leroux, The Mystery of the Yellow Room2017 is here, and I've kicked off a new year of reading with The Mystery of the Yellow Room. This early twentieth century novel is a classic locked-room mystery by Gaston Leroux. Leroux is probably best known as the author of The Phantom of the Opera, but he also wrote several mysteries featuring the reporter Joseph Rouletabille, including The Perfume of the Lady in Black and The Secret of the Night.As you can see in this summary from the publisher, The Mystery of the Yellow Room has all the typical characteristics of an early twentieth-century mystery:A frightful act of malice committed in Paris: the dastardly attempted assassination of the daughter of a famed scientist who was working late in his laboratory with an assistant when the attack took place in the adjacent room. A locked chamber, windows barred, no one hiding inside. The poor young lady unconscious, covered with blood, violent marks on her throat and a wound at her temple. The scientist’s revolver removed from its cabinet and sealed in the room with her. The only trace of her assailant is a large, bloody handprint on the wall.At a loss, the chief of the Sûreté telegraphs for the famous detective Frédéric Larsan to be assigned to the seemingly unsolvable case. A genre-defining novel, The Mystery of the Yellow Room follows the investigation step by step, with thorough descriptions of the crime scene to allow the reader access to the same opaque clues to the crime that the detectives have.Like a lot of early detective fiction, this story focuses more on the puzzle than on character development or theme, but the puzzle itself was enough to keep me reading. Leroux does a fine job, too, of creating a suspenseful atmosphere, and I enjoyed the voice of the narrator, Sainclair the lawyer. One of my favorite lines of the story is when he takes a jab at his profession:I was helping to save the life of a woman, and even a lawyer may do that conscientiously.The Mystery of the Yellow Room was chosen as the third best locked-room mystery of all time in a poll of mystery writers and reviewers, and for good reason. It's well worth a read, especially for fans of early detective fiction and locked-room mysteries.
    • 3/5
      I always find locked-room mysteries highly contrived, but since that's a given for this type of story I always expect it and never let it get in the way of my enjoyment of it. That being said, I found the solution to this one even more convoluted and outside the bounds of reality. It's as if Leroux took a bet that he couldn't devise a plot so dependent on the outlandish and make it work. Maybe all authors who write locked-room mysteries make bets like that. In any case, I had to re-read parts of the explanation because I kept mentally saying "what?". I guess if you allow for some fine acting on the part of the victim and serious observational deficiencies on the part of the rescuers it works, but jeez it's a stretch.
    • 4/5
      First written in 1908, The Mystery of the Yellow Room is considered one of the classics of the "locked-room"/impossible crime genre. Believe me, by the time you finish reading about the crime (never mind the rest of the book), you'll be scratching your head saying "how on earth did this just happen?"It seems that one Mathilde Stangerson goes off to her room (called The Yellow Room) in a pavilion where she and her father work at scientific experiments. The door is locked -- then she is heard to scream, followed by 2 gun shots. As her father and one of the servants rush to the door, they break it open and find only Mathilde, with fresh strangulation marks, a lump on the head and bloody handprints on the walls. But that's it. There's no one else there, and there's no way in the world whoever did this could have possibly escaped. Thus begins a very strange mystery. I can't say any more about it because I will totally wreck it if anyone's interested in reading it.The characters are rather interesting, especially the main character, young (18) journalist with the paper "L'Epoque" -- a journalist with a detective bent. He shares his information with a M. Sinclair, the narrator of the story. Mathilde Stangerson is a woman with many secrets, and nothing is revealed until the end, keeping you hanging on. There are several suspects, many red herrings and multiple clues, so if you are okay with a somewhat rambling narrative (I think it can be excused given the date the book was written), you'll probably find this one to be quite well done. It's likely that modern readers may find this one a bit tedious since we often like to get to the point quickly. In this book, the who, how and why are not divulged until the last minute.Overall, it's a bit rambly, but it's still a fine mystery and you're really just dying by the end to find out everything. Recommended for people who enjoy classic mysteries and locked-room mysteries.

    Book preview

    The Mystery of the Yellow Room - Gaston Leroux

    THE MYSTERY OF THE YELLOW ROOM BY GASTON LEROUX

    Published by Seltzer Books

    established in 1974 as B&R Samizdat Express, now offering over 14,000  books

    feedback welcome: seltzer@seltzerbooks.com

    Novels by Gaston Leroux available from Seltzer Books:

    The Mystery of the Yellow Room

    The Phantom of the Opera

    The Secret of the Night

    The Bride of the Sun

    The Double Life

    1907

    CHAPTER I  In Which We Begin Not to Understand

    CHAPTER II  In Which Joseph Rouktabille Appears for the First Time

    CHAPTER III  A Man Has Passed Like a Shadow Through the Blinds

    CHAPTER IV  "In the Bosom of Wild Nature'

    CHAPTER V  In Which Joseph Rouletabille Makes a Remark to Monsieur Robert Darzac Which Produces Its Little Effect

    CHAPTER VI  in the Heart of the Oak Grove

    CHAPTER VII  In Which Rouletabille Sets Out on an Expedition Under the Bed

    CHAPTER VIII  The Examining Magistrate Questions Mademoiselle Stangerson

    CHAPTER IX  Reporter and Detective

    CHAPTER X  We Shall Have to Eat Red Meat - Now"

    CHAPTER XI  In Which Frederic Larsan Explains How the Murderer Was Able to Get Out of The Yellow Room

    CHAPTER XII  Frederic Larsan's Cane

    CHAPTER XIII   The Presbytery Has Lost Nothing of Its Charm, Nor the Garden Its Brightness

    CHAPTER XIV  I Expect the Assassin This Evening

    CHAPTER XV  The Trap

    CHAPTER XVI  Strange Phenomenon of the Dissociation of Matter

    CHAPTER XVII  The Inexplicable Gallery

    CHAPTER XVIII  Rouletabille Has Drawn a Circle Between the Two Bumps on His Forehead

    CHAPTER XIX  Rouletabille Invites Me to Breakfast at the Donjon Inn

    CHAPTER XX  An Act of Mademoiselle Stangerson

    CHAPTER XXI  On the Watch

    CHAPTER XXII  The Incredible Body

    CHAPTER XXIII  The Double Scent

    CHAPTER XXIV  Rouletabille Knows the Two Halves of the Murderer

    CHAPTER XXV   Rouletabille Goes on a Journey

    CHAPTER XXVI  In Which Joseph Rouletabille Is Awaited with Impatience

    CHAPTER XXVII  In Which Joseph Rouletabille Appears in All His Glory

    CHAPTER XXVIII  In Which It Is Proved That One Does Not Always Think of Everything

    CHAPTER XXIX  The Mystery of Mademoiselle Stangerson

    CHAPTER I  In Which We Begin Not to Understand

    It is not without a certain emotion that I begin to recount here the extraordinary adventures of Joseph Rouletabille.  Down to the present time he had so firmly opposed my doing it that I had come to  despair of ever publishing the most curious of police stories of the past fifteen years.  I had even imagined that the public would never know the whole truth of the prodigious case known as that of The Yellow Room, out of which grew so many mysterious, cruel, and sensational dramas, with which my friend was so closely mixed up, if, propos of a recent nomination of the illustrious Stangerson to the grade of grandcross of the Legion of Honour, an evening journal - in an article, miserable for its ignorance, or audacious for its perfidy - had not resuscitated a terrible adventure of which Joseph Rouletabille had told me he wished to be for ever forgotten.

    The Yellow Room!  Who now remembers this affair which caused so much ink to flow fifteen years ago?  Events are so quickly forgotten in Paris.  Has not the very name of the Nayves trial and the tragic history of the death of little Menaldo passed out of mind?  And yet the public attention was so deeply interested in the details of the trial that the occurrence of a ministerial crisis was completely unnoticed at the time.  Now The Yellow Room trial, which, preceded that of the Nayves by some years, made far more noise.  The entire world hung for months over this obscure problem - the most obscure, it seems to me, that has ever challenged the perspicacity of our police or taxed the conscience of our judges. The solution of the problem baffled everybody who tried to find it. It was like a dramatic rebus with which old Europe and new America alike became fascinated.  That is, in truth - I am permitted to say, because there cannot be any author's vanity in all this, since I do nothing more than transcribe facts on which an exceptional documentation enables me to throw a new light - that is because, in truth, I do not know that, in the domain of reality or imagination, one can discover or recall to mind anything comparable, in its mystery, with the natural mystery of The Yellow Room.

    That which nobody could find out, Joseph Rouletabille, aged eighteen, then a reporter engaged on a leading journal, succeeded in discovering.  But when, at the Assize Court, he brought in the key to the whole case, he did not tell the whole truth.  He only allowed so much of it to appear as sufficed to ensure the acquittal of an innocent man.  The reasons which he had for his reticence no longer exist.  Better still, the time has come for my friend to speak out fully.  You are going to know all; and, without further preamble, I am going to place before your eyes  the problem of The Yellow Room as it was placed before the eyes of the entire world on the day following the enactment of the drama at the Chateau du Glandier.

    On the 25th of October, 1892, the following note appeared in the latest edition of the Temps:

    A frightful crime has been committed at the Glandier, on the border of the forest of Sainte-Genevieve, above Epinay-sur-Orge, at  the house of Professor Stangerson.  On that night, while the master was working in his laboratory, an attempt was made to assassinate Mademoiselle Stangerson, who was sleeping in a chamber adjoining this laboratory.  The doctors do not answer for the life of Mdlle. Stangerson.

    The impression made on Paris by this news may be easily imagined. Already, at that time, the learned world was deeply interested in the labours of Professor Stangerson and his daughter.  These labours -  the first that were attempted in radiography - served to open the way for Monsieur and Madame Curie to the discovery of radium. It was expected the Professor would shortly read to the Academy of Sciences a sensational paper on his new theory, - the Dissociation of Matter, - a theory destined to overthrow from its base the whole of official science, which based itself on the principle of the Conservation of Energy.  On the following day, the newspapers were full of the tragedy.  The Matin, among others, published the following article, entitled:  A Supernatural Crime:

    These are the only details, wrote the anonymous writer in the Matin - "we have been able to obtain concerning the crime of the Chateau du Glandier.  The state of despair in which Professor Stangerson is plunged, and the impossibility of getting any information from the lips of the victim, have rendered our investigations and those of justice so difficult that, at present, we cannot form the least idea of what has passed in The Yellow Room in which Mdlle. Stangerson, in her night-dress, was found lying on the floor in the agonies of death.  We have, at least, been able to interview Daddy Jacques - as he is called in the country - a old servant in the Stangerson family.  Daddy Jacques entered The Room at the same time as the Professor.  This chamber adjoins the laboratory.  Laboratory and Yellow Room are in a pavilion at the end of the park, about three hundred metres (a thousand feet) from the chateau.

    'It was half-past twelve at night,' this honest old man told us, 'and I was in the laboratory, where Monsieur Stangerson was still working, when the thing happened.  I had been cleaning and putting instruments in order all the evening and was waiting for Monsieur Stangerson to go to bed.  Mademoiselle Stangerson had worked with her father up to midnight; when the twelve strokes of midnight had sounded by the cuckoo-clock in the laboratory, she rose, kissed Monsieur Stangerson and bade him good-night.  To me she said bon soir, Daddy Jacques as she passed into The Yellow Room.  We heard her lock the door and shoot the bolt, so that I could not help laughing, and said to Monsieur: There's Mademoiselle double-locking herself in, - she must be afraid of the 'Bete du bon Dieu!' Monsieur did not even hear me, he was so deeply absorbed in what he was doing.  Just then we heard the distant miawing of a cat.  Is that going to keep us awake all night?" I said to myself; for I must tell you, Monsieur, that, to the end of October, I live in an attic of the pavilion over The Yellow Room, so that Mademoiselle should not be left alone through the night in the lonely park.  It was the fancy of Mademoiselle to spend the fine weather in the pavilion; no doubt, she found it more cheerful than the chateau and, for the four years it had been built, she had never failed to take up her lodging there in the spring.  With the return of winter, Mademoiselle returns to the chateau, for there is no fireplace in The Yellow Room.

    'We were staying in the pavilion, then - Monsieur Stangerson and me.  We made no noise.  He was seated at his desk.  As for me, I was sitting on a chair, having finished my work and, looking at him, I said to myself:  What a man!  - what intelligence!  - what knowledge!  I attach importance to the fact that we made no noise; for, because of that, the assassin certainly thought that we had left the place.  And, suddenly, while the cuckoo was sounding the half after midnight, a desperate clamour broke out in The Yellow Room.  It was the voice of Mademoiselle, crying  Murder!  - murder! - help!  Immediately afterwards revolver shots rang out and there was a great noise of tables and furniture being thrown to the ground, as if in the course of a struggle, and again the voice of Mademoiselle calling, Murder!  - help!  - Papa!  - Papa!  -"

    'You may be sure that we quickly sprang up and that Monsieur Stangerson and I threw ourselves upon the door.  But alas!  it was locked, fast locked, on the inside, by the care of Mademoiselle, as I have told you, with key and bolt.  We tried to force it open, but it remained firm.  Monsieur Stangerson was like a madman, and truly, it was enough to make him one, for we heard Mademoiselle still calling  Help!  - help!"  Monsieur Stangerson showered terrible blows on the door, and wept with rage and sobbed with despair and helplessness.

    'It was then that I had an inspiration.  The assassin must have entered by the window! I cried; - I will go to the window!" and I rushed from the pavilion and ran like one out of his mind.

    "'The inspiration was that the window of The Yellow Room looks out in such a way that the park wall, which abuts on the pavilion, prevented my at once reaching the window.  To get up to it one has first to go out of the park.  I ran towards the gate and, on my way, met Bernier and his wife, the gate-keepers, who had been attracted by the pistol reports and by our cries.  In a few words I told them what had happened, and directed the concierge to join Monsieur Stangerson with all speed, while his wife came with me to open the park gate.  Five minutes later she and I were before the window of The Yellow Room.

     "'The moon was shining brightly and I saw clearly that no one had touched the window.  Not only were the bars that protect it intact, but the blinds inside of them were drawn, as I had myself drawn them early in the evening, as I did every day, though Mademoiselle, knowing that I was tired from the heavy work I had been doing, had begged me not to trouble myself, but leave her to do it; and they were just as I had left them, fastened with an iron catch on the inside.  The assassin, therefore, could not have passed either in or out that way; but neither could I get in.

    "'It was unfortunate, - enough to turn one's brain!  The door of the room locked on the inside and the blinds on the only window also fastened on the inside; and Mademoiselle still calling for help!  - No!  she had ceased to call.  She was dead, perhaps.  But I still heard her father, in the pavilion, trying to break down the door.

    "'With the concierge I hurried back to the pavilion.  The door, in spite of the furious attempts of Monsieur Stangerson and Bernier to burst it open, was still holding firm; but at length, it gave way before our united efforts, - and then what a sight met our eyes! I should tell you that, behind us, the concierge held the laboratory lamp - a powerful lamp, that lit the whole chamber.

    "'I must also tell you, monsieur, that The Yellow Room is a very small room.  Mademoiselle had furnished it with a fairly large iron bedstead, a small table, a night-commode; a dressing-table, and two chairs.  By the light of the big lamp we saw all at a glance. Mademoiselle, in her night-dress, was lying on the floor in the midst of the greatest disorder.  Tables and chairs had been overthrown, showing that there had been a violent struggle. Mademoiselle had certainly been dragged from her bed.  She was covered with blood and had terrible marks of finger-nails on her throat, - the flesh of her neck having been almost torn by the nails.  From a wound on the right temple a stream of blood had run down and made a little pool on the floor.  When Monsieur Stangerson saw his daughter in that state, he threw himself on his knees beside her, uttering a cry of despair.  He ascertained that she still breathed.  As to us, we searched for the wretch who had tried to kill our mistress, and I swear to you, monsieur, that, if we had found him, it would have gone hard with him!

    "'But how to explain that he was not there, that he had already escaped?  It passes all imagination!  - Nobody under the bed, nobody behind the furniture!  - All that we discovered were traces, blood-stained marks of a man's large hand on the walls and on the door; a big handkerchief red with blood, without any initials, an old cap, and many fresh footmarks of a man on the floor, - footmarks of a man with large feet whose boot-soles had left a sort of sooty impression.  How had this man got away?  How had he vanished?  Don't forget, monsieur, that there is no chimney in The Yellow Room.  He could not have escaped by the door, which is narrow, and on the threshold of which the concierge stood with the lamp, while her husband and I searched for him in every corner of the little room, where it is impossible for anyone to hide himself.  The door, which had been forced open against the wall, could not conceal anything behind it, as we assured ourselves.  By the window, still in every way secured, no flight had been possible.  What then?  - I began to believe in the Devil.

    'But we discovered my revolver on the floor!  - Yes, my revolver! Oh!  that brought me back to the reality!  The Devil would not have needed to steal my revolver to kill Mademoiselle.  The man who had been there had first gone up to my attic and taken my revolver from the drawer where I kept it.  We then ascertained, by counting the cartridges, that the assassin had fired two shots.  Ah!  it was fortunate for me that Monsieur Stangerson was in the laboratory when the affair took place and had seen with his own eyes that I was there with him; for otherwise, with this business of my revolver, I don't know where we should have been, - I should now be under lock and bar.  Justice wants no more to send a man to the scaffold!'

    The editor of the Matin added to this interview the following lines:

    We have, without interrupting him, allowed Daddy Jacques to recount to us roughly all he knows about the crime of The Yellow Room.  We have reproduced it in his own words, only sparing the reader the continual lamentations with which he garnished his narrative.  It is quite understood, Daddy Jacques, quite understood, that you are very fond of your masters; and you want them to know it, and never cease repeating it - especially since the discovery of your revolver.  It is your right, and we see no harm in it.  We should have liked to put some further questions to Daddy Jacques - Jacques - Louis Moustier - but the inquiry of the examining magistrate, which is being carried on at the chateau, makes it impossible for us to gain admission at the Glandier; and, as to the oak wood, it is guarded by a wide circle of policemen, who are jealously watching all traces that can lead to the pavilion, and that may perhaps lead to the discovery of the assassin.  We have also wished to question the concierges, but they are invisible.  Finally, we have waited in a roadside inn, not far from the gate of the chateau, for the departure of Monsieur de Marquet, the magistrate of Corbeil.  At half-past five we saw him and his clerk and, before he was able to enter his carriage, had an opportunity to ask him the following question:

    "'Can you, Monsieur de Marquet, give us any information as to this affair, without inconvenience to the course of your inquiry?'

    "'It is impossible for us to do it,' replied Monsieur de Marquet. 'I can only say that it is the strangest affair I have ever known. The more we think we know something, the further we are from knowing anything!'

    "We asked Monsieur de Marquet to be good enough to explain his last words; and this is what he said, - the importance of which no one will fail to recognise:

    'If nothing is added to the material facts so far established, I fear that the mystery which surrounds the abominable crime of which Mademoiselle Stangerson has been the victim will never be brought to light; but it is to be hoped, for the sake of our human reason, that the examination of the wails, and of the ceiling of The Yellow Room - an examination which I shall to-morrow intrust to the builder who constructed the pavilion four years ago - will afford us the proof that may not discourage us.  For the problem is this: we know by what way the assassin gained admission, - he entered by the door and hid himself under the bed, awaiting Mademoiselle Stangerson.  But how did he leave?  How did he escape?  If no trap, no secret door, no hiding place, no opening of any sort is found; if the examination of the walls - even to the demolition of the pavilion - does not reveal any passage practicable - not only for a human being, but for any being whatsoever - if the ceiling shows no crack, if the floor hides no underground passage, one must really believe in the Devil, as Daddy Jacques says!'

    And the anonymous writer in the Matin added in this article - which I have selected as the most interesting of all those that were published on the subject of this affair - that the examining magistrate appeared to place a peculiar significance to the last sentence: "One must really believe in the Devil, as Jacques says.

    The article concluded with these lines: We wanted to know what Daddy Jacques meant by the cry of the Bete Du Bon Dieu.  The landlord of the Donjon Inn explained to us that it is the particularly sinister cry which is uttered sometimes at night by the cat of an old woman, - Mother Angenoux, as she is called in the country.  Mother Angenoux is a sort of saint, who lives in a hut in the heart of the forest, not far from the grotto of Sainte-Genevieve.

    The Yellow Room, the Bete Du Bon Dieu, Mother Angenoux, the Devil, Sainte-Genevieve, Daddy Jacques, - here is a well entangled crime which the stroke of a pickaxe in the wall may disentangle for us to-morrow.  Let us at least hope that, for the sake of our human reason, as the examining magistrate says.  Meanwhile, it is expected that Mademoiselle Stangerson - who has not ceased to be delirious and only pronounces one word distinctly, 'Murderer!  Murderer!' - will not live through the night.

    In conclusion, and at a late hour, the same journal announced that the Chief of the Surete had telegraphed to the famous detective, Frederic Larsan, who had been sent to London for an affair of stolen securities, to return immediately to Paris.

    CHAPTER II  In Which Joseph Rouktabille Appears for the First Time

     I remember as well as if it had occurred yesterday, the entry of young Rouletabille into my bedroom that morning.  It was about eight o'clock and I was still in bed reading the article in the Matin relative to the Glandier crime.

    But, before going further, it is time that I present my friend to the reader.

    I first knew Joseph Rouletabille when he was a young reporter.  At that time I was a beginner at the Bar and often met him in the corridors of examining magistrates, when I had gone to get a permit to communicate for the prison of Mazas, or for Saint-Lazare.  He had, as they say, a good nut. He seemed to have taken his head - round as a bullet - out of a box of marbles, and it is from that, I think, that his comrades of the press - all determined billiard-players - had given him that nickname, which was to stick to him and be made illustrious by him.  He was always as red as a tomato, now gay as a lark, now grave as a judge.  How, while still so young - he was only sixteen and a half years old when I saw him for the first time -

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