,
my dear fellow," I said. "Aren't you satisfied?"

"Yes," he confessed to me, with a deep sigh. "I am quite satisfied. I
have discovered many things."

"Moral or material?"

"Several moral,--one material. This, for example."

And rapidly he drew from his waistcoat pocket a piece of paper in which
he had placed a light-coloured hair from a woman's head.

CHAPTER VIII. The Examining Magistrate Questions Mademoiselle Stangerson

Two minutes later, as Rouletabille was bending over the footprints
discovered in the park, under the window of the vestibule, a man,
evidently a servant at the chateau, came towards us rapidly and called
out to Monsieur Darzac then coming out of the pavilion:

"Monsieur Robert, the magistrate, you know, is questioning
Mademoiselle."

Monsieur Darzac uttered a muttered excuse to us and set off running
towards the chateau, the man running after him.

"If the corpse can speak," I said, "it would be interesting to be
there."

"We must know," said my friend. "Let's go to the chateau." And he drew
me with him. But, at the chateau, a gendarme placed in the vestibule
denied us admission up the staircase of the first floor. We were obliged
to wait down stairs.

This is what passed in the chamber of the victim while we were waiting
below.

The family doctor, finding that Mademoiselle Stangerson was much
better, but fearing a relapse which would no longer permit of her being
questioned, had thought it his duty to inform the examining magistrate
of this, who decided to proceed immediately with a brief examination.
At this examination, the Registrar, Monsieur Stangerson, and the
doctor were present. Later, I obtained the text of the report of the
examination, and I give it here, in all its legal dryness:

"Question. Are you able, mademoiselle, without too much fatiguing
yourself, to give some necessary details of the frightful attack of
which you have been the victim?

"Answer. I feel much better, monsieur, and I will tell you all I know.
When I entered my chamber I did not notice anything unusual there.

"Q. Excuse me, mademoiselle,--if you will allow me, I will ask you some
questions and you will answer them. That will fatigue you less than
making a long recital.

"A. Do so, monsieur.

"Q. What did you do on that day?--I want you to be as minute and precise
as possible. I wish to know all you did that day, if it is not asking
too much of you.

"A. I rose late, at ten o'clock,