rous of entering the
park. But two gendarmes stationed at the gate had evidently received
orders to refuse admission to anybody. The Chief of the Surete calmed
their impatience by undertaking to furnish to the press, that evening,
all the information he could give that would not interfere with the
judicial inquiry.

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

Among the mass of papers, legal documents, memoirs, and extracts from
newspapers, which I have collected, relating to the mystery of The
Yellow Room, there is one very interesting piece; it is a detail of the
famous examination which took place that afternoon, in the laboratory of
Professor Stangerson, before the Chief of the Surete. This narrative is
from the pen of Monsieur Maleine, the Registrar, who, like the examining
magistrate, had spent some of his leisure time in the pursuit of
literature. The piece was to have made part of a book which, however,
has never been published, and which was to have been entitled: "My
Examinations." It was given to me by the Registrar himself, some time
after the astonishing denouement to this case, and is unique in judicial
chronicles.

Here it is. It is not a mere dry transcription of questions and answers,
because the Registrar often intersperses his story with his own personal
comments.

THE REGISTRAR'S NARRATIVE

The examining magistrate and I (the writer relates) found ourselves in
The Yellow Room in the company of the builder who had constructed the
pavilion after Professor Stangerson's designs. He had a workman with
him. Monsieur de Marquet had had the walls laid entirely bare; that is
to say, he had had them stripped of the paper which had decorated them.
Blows with a pick, here and there, satisfied us of the absence of any
sort of opening. The floor and the ceiling were thoroughly sounded.
We found nothing. There was nothing to be found. Monsieur de Marquet
appeared to be delighted and never ceased repeating:

"What a case! What a case! We shall never know, you'll see, how the
murderer was able to get out of this room!"

Then suddenly, with a radiant face, he called to the officer in charge
of the gendarmes.

"Go to the chateau," he said, "and request Monsieur Stangerson and
Monsieur Robert Darzac to come to me in the laboratory, also Daddy
Jacques; and let your men bring here the two concierges."

Five minutes later a