t,
therefore, have escaped."

"That does not follow."

"What do you mean?"

"There was no need for him to escape--if he was not there!"

"Not there!"

"Evidently, not. He could not have been there, if he were not found
there."

"But, what about the evidences of his presence?" asked the President.

"That, Monsieur President, is where we have taken hold of the wrong end.
From the time Mademoiselle Stangerson shut herself in the room to the
time her door was burst open, it was impossible for the murderer to
escape. He was not found because he was not there during that time."

"But the evidences?"

"They have led us astray. In reasoning on this mystery we must not take
them to mean what they apparently mean. Why do we conclude the murderer
was there?--Because he left his tracks in the room? Good! But may he not
have been there before the room was locked. Nay, he must have been there
before! Let us look into the matter of these traces and see if they do
not point to my conclusion.

"After the publication of the article in the 'Matin' and my
conversation with the examining magistrate on the journey from Paris to
Epinaysur-Orge, I was certain that The Yellow Room had been hermetically
sealed, so to speak, and that consequently the murderer had escaped
before Mademoiselle Stangerson had gone into her chamber at midnight.

"At the time I was much puzzled. Mademoiselle Stangerson could not have
been her own murderer, since the evidences pointed to some other person.
The assassin, then, had come before. If that were so, how was it that
Mademoiselle had been attacked after? or rather, that she appeared to
have been attacked after? It was necessary for me to reconstruct the
occurrence and make of it two phases--each separated from the other,
in time, by the space of several hours. One phase in which Mademoiselle
Stangerson had really been attacked--the other phase in which those who
heard her cries thought she was being attacked. I had not then examined
The Yellow Room. What were the marks on Mademoiselle Stangerson? There
were marks of strangulation and the wound from a hard blow on the
temple. The marks of strangulation did not interest me much; they might
have been made before, and Mademoiselle Stangerson could have concealed
them by a collarette, or any similar article of apparel. I had to
suppose this the moment I was compelled to reconstruct the occurrence by
two phases. Mademoiselle Stangerson had, no doubt, her