murderer was working for the other."

"No, no!" replied Rouletabille with a strange smile. "I have expected
to find these footmarks from the very beginning. These are not the
footmarks of the murderer!"

"Then there were two?"

"No--there was but one, and he had no accomplice."

"Very good!--Very good!" cried Frederic Larsan.

"Look!" continued the young reporter, showing us the ground where it had
been disturbed by big and heavy heels; "the man seated himself there,
and took off his hobnailed boots, which he had worn only for the purpose
of misleading detection, and then no doubt, taking them away with him,
he stood up in his own boots, and quietly and slowly regained the high
road, holding his bicycle in his hand, for he could not venture to ride
it on this rough path. That accounts for the lightness of the impression
made by the wheels along it, in spite of the softness of the ground. If
there had been a man on the bicycle, the wheels would have sunk deeply
into the soil. No, no; there was but one man there, the murderer on
foot."

"Bravo!--bravo!" cried Fred again, and coming suddenly towards us and,
planting himself in front of Monsieur Robert Darzac, he said to him:

"If we had a bicycle here, we might demonstrate the correctness of the
young man's reasoning, Monsieur Robert Darzac. Do you know whether there
is one at the chateau?"

"No!" replied Monsieur Darzac. "There is not. I took mine, four days
ago, to Paris, the last time I came to the chateau before the crime."

"That's a pity!" replied Fred, very coldly. Then, turning to
Rouletabille, he said: "If we go on at this rate, we'll both come to the
same conclusion. Have you any idea, as to how the murderer got away from
The Yellow Room?"

"Yes," said my young friend; "I have an idea."

"So have I," said Fred, "and it must be the same as yours. There are no
two ways of reasoning in this affair. I am waiting for the arrival of my
chief before offering any explanation to the examining magistrate."

"Ah! Is the Chief of the Surete coming?"

"Yes, this afternoon. He is going to summon, before the magistrate, in
the laboratory, all those who have played any part in this tragedy. It
will be very interesting. It is a pity you won't be able to be present."

"I shall be present," said Rouletabille confidently.

"Really--you are an extraordinary fellow--for your age!" replied the
detective in a tone not wholly free from irony. "You'd make a wonderful
det