<p><SPAN name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CHAPTER XXIV. Rouletabille Knows the Two Halves of the Murderer </h2>
<p>Mademoiselle Stangerson had been almost murdered for the second time.
Unfortunately, she was in too weak a state to bear the severer injuries of
this second attack as well as she had those of the first. She had received
three wounds in the breast from the murderer's knife, and she lay long
between life and death. Her strong physique, however, saved her; but
though she recovered physically it was found that her mind had been
affected. The slightest allusion to the terrible incident sent her into
delirium, and the arrest of Robert Darzac which followed on the day
following the tragic death of the keeper seemed to sink her fine
intelligence into complete melancholia.</p>
<p>Robert Darzac arrived at the chateau towards half-past nine. I saw him
hurrying through the park, his hair and clothes in disorder and his face a
deadly white. Rouletabille and I were looking out of a window in the
gallery. He saw us, and gave a despairing cry: "I'm too late!"</p>
<p>Rouletabille answered: "She lives!"</p>
<p>A minute later Darzac had gone into Mademoiselle Stangerson's room and,
through the door, we could hear his heart-rending sobs.</p>
<p>"There's a fate about this place!" groaned Rouletabille. "Some infernal
gods must be watching over the misfortunes of this family!—If I had
not been drugged, I should have saved Mademoiselle Stangerson. I should
have silenced him forever. And the keeper would not have been killed!"</p>
<p>Monsieur Darzac came in to speak with us. His distress was terrible.
Rouletabille told him everything: his preparations for Mademoiselle
Stangerson's safety; his plans for either capturing or for disposing of
the assailant for ever; and how he would have succeeded had it not been
for the drugging.</p>
<p>"If only you had trusted me!" said the young man, in a low tone. "If you
had but begged Mademoiselle Stangerson to confide in me!—But, then,
everybody here distrusts everybody else, the daughter distrusts her
father, and even her lover. While you ask me to protect her she is doing
all she can to frustrate me. That was why I came on the scene too late!"</p>
<p>At Monsieur Robert Darzac's request Rouletabille described the whole
scene. Leaning on the wall, to prevent himself from falling, he had made
his way to Mademoiselle Stangerson's room, while we were running after the
supposed murderer. The ante-room door was open and when he entered he
found Mademoiselle Stangerson lying partly thrown over the desk. Her
dressing-gown was dyed with the blood flowing from her bosom. Still under
the influence of the drug, he felt he was walking in a horrible nightmare.</p>
<p>He went back to the gallery automatically, opened a window, shouted his
order to fire, and then returned to the room. He crossed the deserted
boudoir, entered the drawing-room, and tried to rouse Monsieur Stangerson
who was lying on a sofa. Monsieur Stangerson rose stupidly and let himself
be drawn by Rouletabille into the room where, on seeing his daughter's
body, he uttered a heart-rending cry. Both united their feeble strength
and carried her to her bed.</p>
<p>On his way to join us Rouletabille passed by the desk. On the floor, near
it, he saw a large packet. He knelt down and, finding the wrapper loose,
he examined it, and made out an enormous quantity of papers and
photographs. On one of the papers he read: "New differential electroscopic
condenser. Fundamental properties of substance intermediary between
ponderable matter and imponderable ether." Strange irony of fate that the
professor's precious papers should be restored to him at the very time
when an attempt was being made to deprive him of his daughter's life! What
are papers worth to him now?</p>
<p>The morning following that awful night saw Monsieur de Marquet once more
at the chateau, with his Registrar and gendarmes. Of course we were all
questioned. Rouletabille and I had already agreed on what to say. I kept
back any information as to my being in the dark closet and said nothing
about the drugging. We did not wish to suggest in any way that
Mademoiselle Stangerson had been expecting her nocturnal visitor. The poor
woman might, perhaps, never recover, and it was none of our business to
lift the veil of a secret the preservation of which she had paid for so
dearly.</p>
<p>Arthur Rance told everybody, in a manner so natural that it astonished me,
that he had last seen the keeper towards eleven o'clock of that fatal
night. He had come for his valise, he said, which he was to take for him
early next morning to the Saint-Michel station, and had been kept out late
running after poachers. Arthur Rance had, indeed, intended to leave the
chateau and, according to his habit, to walk to the station.</p>
<p>Monsieur Stangerson confirmed what Rance had said, adding that he had not
asked Rance to dine with him because his friend had taken his final leave
of them both earlier in the evening. Monsieur Rance had had tea served him
in his room, because he had complained of a slight indisposition.</p>
<p>Bernier testified, instructed by Rouletabille, that the keeper had ordered
him to meet at a spot near the oak grove, for the purpose of looking out
for poachers. Finding that the keeper did not keep his appointment, he,
Bernier, had gone in search of him. He had almost arrived at the donjon,
when he saw a figure running swiftly in a direction opposite to him,
towards the right wing of the chateau. He heard revolver shots from behind
the figure and saw Rouletabille at one of the gallery windows. He heard
Rouletabille call out to him to fire, and he had fired. He believed he had
killed the man until he learned, after Rouletabille had uncovered the
body, that the man had died from a knife thrust. Who had given it he could
not imagine. "Nobody could have been near the spot without my seeing him."
When the examining magistrate reminded him that the spot where the body
was found was very dark and that he himself had not been able to recognise
the keeper before firing, Daddy Bernier replied that neither had they seen
the other body; nor had they found it. In the narrow court where five
people were standing it would have been strange if the other body, had it
been there, could have escaped. The only door that opened into the court
was that of the keeper's room, and that door was closed, and the key of it
was found in the keeper's pocket.</p>
<p>However that might be, the examining magistrate did not pursue his inquiry
further in this direction. He was evidently convinced that we had missed
the man we were chasing and we had come upon the keeper's body in our
chase. This matter of the keeper was another matter entirely. He wanted to
satisfy himself about that without any further delay. Probably it fitted
in with the conclusions he had already arrived at as to the keeper and his
intrigues with the wife of Mathieu, the landlord of the Donjon Inn. This
Mathieu, later in the afternoon, was arrested and taken to Corbeil in
spite of his rheumatism. He had been heard to threaten the keeper, and
though no evidence against him had been found at his inn, the evidence of
carters who had heard the threats was enough to justify his retention.</p>
<p>The examination had proceeded thus far when, to our surprise, Frederic
Larsan returned to the chateau. He was accompanied by one of the employees
of the railway. At that moment Rance and I were in the vestibule
discussing Mathieu's guilt or innocence, while Rouletabille stood apart
buried, apparently, in thought. The examining magistrate and his Registrar
were in the little green drawing-room, while Darzac was with the doctor
and Stangerson in the lady's chamber. As Frederic Larsan entered the
vestibule with the railway employed, Rouletabille and I at once recognised
him by the small blond beard. We exchanged meaningful glances. Larsan had
himself announced to the examining magistrate by the gendarme and entered
with the railway servant as Daddy Jacques came out. Some ten minutes went
by during which Rouletabille appeared extremely impatient. The door of the
drawing-room was then opened and we heard the magistrate calling to the
gendarme who entered. Presently he came out, mounted the stairs and,
coming back shortly, went in to the magistrate and said:</p>
<p>"Monsieur,—Monsieur Robert Darzac will not come!"</p>
<p>"What! Not come!" cried Monsieur de Marquet.</p>
<p>"He says he cannot leave Mademoiselle Stangerson in her present state."</p>
<p>"Very well," said Monsieur de Marquet; "then we'll go to him."</p>
<p>Monsieur de Marquet and the gendarme mounted the stairs. He made a sign to
Larsan and the railroad employe to follow. Rouletabille and I went along
too.</p>
<p>On reaching the door of Mademoiselle Stangerson's chamber, Monsieur de
Marquet knocked. A chambermaid appeared. It was Sylvia, with her hair all
in disorder and consternation showing on her face.</p>
<p>"Is Monsieur Stangerson within?" asked the magistrate.</p>
<p>"Yes, Monsieur."</p>
<p>"Tell him that I wish to speak with him."</p>
<p>Stangerson came out. His appearance was wretched in the extreme.</p>
<p>"What do you want?" he demanded of the magistrate. "May I not be left in
peace, Monsieur?"</p>
<p>"Monsieur," said the magistrate, "it is absolutely necessary that I should
see Monsieur Darzac at once. If you cannot induce him to come, I shall be
compelled to use the help of the law."</p>
<p>The professor made no reply. He looked at us all like a man being led to
execution, and then went back into the room.</p>
<p>Almost immediately after Monsieur Robert Darzac came out. He was very
pale. He looked at us and, his eyes falling on the railway servant, his
features stiffened and he could hardly repress a groan.</p>
<p>We were all much moved by the appearance of the man. We felt that what was
about to happen would decide the fate of Monsieur Robert Darzac. Frederic
Larsan's face alone was radiant, showing a joy as of a dog that had at
last got its prey.</p>
<p>Pointing to the railway servant, Monsieur de Marquet said to Monsieur
Darzac:</p>
<p>"Do you recognise this man, Monsieur?"</p>
<p>"I do," said Monsieur Darzac, in a tone which he vainly tried to make
firm. "He is an employe at the station at Epinay-sur-Orge."</p>
<p>"This young man," went on Monsieur de Marquet, "affirms that he saw you
get off the train at Epinay-sur-Orge—"</p>
<p>"That night," said Monsieur Darzac, interrupting, "at half-past ten—it
is quite true."</p>
<p>An interval of silence followed.</p>
<p>"Monsieur Darzac," the magistrate went on in a tone of deep emotion,
"Monsieur Darzac, what were you doing that night, at Epinay-sur-Orge—at
that time?"</p>
<p>Monsieur Darzac remained silent, simply closing his eyes.</p>
<p>"Monsieur Darzac," insisted Monsieur de Marquet, "can you tell me how you
employed your time, that night?"</p>
<p>Monsieur Darzac opened his eyes. He seemed to have recovered his
self-control.</p>
<p>"No, Monsieur."</p>
<p>"Think, Monsieur! For, if you persist in your strange refusal, I shall be
under the painful necessity of keeping you at my disposition."</p>
<p>"I refuse."</p>
<p>"Monsieur Darzac!—in the name of the law, I arrest you!"</p>
<p>The magistrate had no sooner pronounced the words than I saw Rouletabille
move quickly towards Monsieur Darzac. He would certainly have spoken to
him, but Darzac, by a gesture, held him off. As the gendarme approached
his prisoner, a despairing cry rang through the room:</p>
<p>"Robert!—Robert!"</p>
<p>We recognised the voice of Mademoiselle Stangerson. We all shuddered.
Larsan himself turned pale. Monsieur Darzac, in response to the cry, had
flown back into the room.</p>
<p>The magistrate, the gendarme, and Larsan followed closely after.
Rouletabille and I remained on the threshold. It was a heart-breaking
sight that met our eyes. Mademoiselle Stangerson, with a face of deathly
pallor, had risen on her bed, in spite of the restraining efforts of two
doctors and her father. She was holding out her trembling arms towards
Robert Darzac, on whom Larsan and the gendarme had laid hands. Her
distended eyes saw—she understood—her lips seemed to form a
word, but nobody made it out; and she fell back insensible.</p>
<p>Monsieur Darzac was hurried out of the room and placed in the vestibule to
wait for the vehicle Larsan had gone to fetch. We were all overcome by
emotion and even Monsieur de Marquet had tears in his eyes. Rouletabille
took advantage of the opportunity to say to Monsieur Darzac:</p>
<p>"Are you going to put in any defense?"</p>
<p>"No!" replied the prisoner.</p>
<p>"Very well, then I will, Monsieur."</p>
<p>"You cannot do it," said the unhappy man with a faint smile.</p>
<p>"I can—and I will."</p>
<p>Rouletabille's voice had in it a strange strength and confidence.</p>
<p>"I can do it, Monsieur Robert Darzac, because I know more than you do!"</p>
<p>"Come! Come!" murmured Darzac, almost angrily.</p>
<p>"Have no fear! I shall know only what will benefit you."</p>
<p>"You must know nothing, young man, if you want me to be grateful."</p>
<p>Rouletabille shook his head, going close up to Darzac.</p>
<p>"Listen to what I am about to say," he said in a low tone, "and let it
give you confidence. You do not know the name of the murderer.
Mademoiselle Stangerson knows it; but only half of it; but I know his two
halves; I know the whole man!"</p>
<p>Robert Darzac opened his eyes, with a look that showed he had not
understood a word of what Rouletabille had said to him. At that moment the
conveyance arrived, driven by Frederic Larsan. Darzac and the gendarme
entered it, Larsan remaining on the driver's seat. The prisoner was taken
to Corbeil.</p>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />