rom the pavilion--that's another thing, the most natural thing in the
world."

For a moment Frederic Larsan paused,--a moment that appeared to us a
very long time. The eagerness with which we awaited what he was going to
tell us may be imagined.

"I have not been in The Yellow Room," he continued, "but I take it for
granted that you have satisfied yourselves that he could have left the
room only by way of the door; it is by the door, then, that the murderer
made his way out. At what time? At the moment when it was most easy
for him to do so; at the moment when it became most explainable--so
completely explainable that there can be no other explanation. Let us
go over the moments which followed after the crime had been committed.
There was the first moment, when Monsieur Stangerson and Daddy Jacques
were close to the door, ready to bar the way. There was the second
moment, during which Daddy Jacques was absent and Monsieur Stangerson
was left alone before the door. There was a third moment, when Monsieur
Stangerson was joined by the concierge. There was a fourth moment,
during which Monsieur Stangerson, the concierge and his wife and Daddy
Jacques were before the door. There was a fifth moment, during which the
door was burst open and The Yellow Room entered. The moment at which the
flight is explainable is the very moment when there was the least number
of persons before the door. There was one moment when there was but one
person,--Monsieur Stangerson. Unless a complicity of silence on the part
of Daddy Jacques is admitted--in which I do not believe--the door was
opened in the presence of Monsieur Stangerson alone and the man escaped.

"Here we must admit that Monsieur Stangerson had powerful reasons for
not arresting, or not causing the arrest of the murderer, since he
allowed him to reach the window in the vestibule and closed it after
him!--That done, Mademoiselle Stangerson, though horribly wounded, had
still strength enough, and no doubt in obedience to the entreaties of
her father, to refasten the door of her chamber, with both the bolt and
the lock, before sinking on the floor. We do not know who committed
the crime; we do not know of what wretch Monsieur and Mademoiselle
Stangerson are the victims, but there is no doubt that they both know!
The secret must be a terrible one, for the father had not hesitated
to leave his daughter to die behind a door which she had shut upon
herself,--terrible for him to have a