Page:Mystery of the Yellow Room (Grosset Dunlap 1908).djvu/298

 of "Hush" showed the curiosity that had been aroused.

"It seems to me," said the President, "that the Mystery of The Yellow Room, Monsieur Rouletabille, is wholly explained by your hypothesis. Frédéric Larsan is the explanation.  We have merely to substitute him for Monsieur Robert Darzac.  Evidently the door of The Yellow Room was open at the time Monsieur Stangerson was alone, and that he allowed the man who was coming out of his daughter's chamber to pass without arresting him—perhaps at her entreaty to avoid all scandal."

"No, Monsieur President," protested the young man. "You forget that, stunned by the attack made on her, Mademoiselle Stangerson was not in a condition to have made such an appeal. Nor could she have locked and bolted herself in her room.  You must also remember that Monsieur Stangerson has sworn that the door was not open."

"That, however, is the only way in which it can be explained. The Yellow Room was as closely shut as an iron safe.  To use your own expression, it was impossible for the murderer to make his escape either naturally or supernaturally.  When the room was broken into he was not there!  He must, 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."