know that you do not suspect
me.'

"The poor man spoke in jerks. He was evidently suffering. I pitied him,
the more because I felt sure that he would rather allow himself to
be killed than tell me who the murderer was. As for Mademoiselle
Stangerson, I felt that she would rather allow herself to be murdered
than denounce the man of The Yellow Room and of the inexplicable
gallery. The man must be dominating her, or both, by some inscrutable
power. They were dreading nothing so much as the chance of Monsieur
Stangerson knowing that his daughter was 'held' by her assailant. I made
Monsieur Darzac understand that he had explained himself sufficiently,
and that he might refrain from telling me any more than he had already
told me. I promised him to watch through the night. He insisted that I
should establish an absolutely impassable barrier around Mademoiselle
Stangerson's chamber, around the boudoir where the nurses were sleeping,
and around the drawing-room where, since the affair of the inexplicable
gallery, Monsieur Stangerson had slept. In short, I was to put a cordon
round the whole apartment.

"From his insistence I gathered that Monsieur Darzac intended not only
to make it impossible for the expected man to reach the chamber of
Mademoiselle Stangerson, but to make that impossibility so visibly clear
that, seeing himself expected, he would at once go away. That was how
I interpreted his final words when we parted: 'You may mention your
suspicions of the expected attack to Monsieur Stangerson, to Daddy
Jacques, to Frederic Larsan, and to anybody in the chateau.'

"The poor fellow left me hardly knowing what he was saying. My silence
and my eyes told him that I had guessed a large part of his secret. And,
indeed, he must have been at his wits' end, to have come to me at such a
time, and to abandon Mademoiselle Stangerson in spite of his fixed idea
as to the consequence.

"When he was gone, I began to think that I should have to use even a
greater cunning than his so that if the man should come that night,
he might not for a moment suspect that his coming had been expected.
Certainly! I would allow him to get in far enough, so that, dead or
alive, I might see his face clearly! He must be got rid of. Mademoiselle
Stangerson must be freed from this continual impending danger.

"Yes, my boy," said Rouletabille, after placing his pipe on the table,
and emptying his mug of cider, "I must see his face distinctly, so as t