entered by the window!" I cried;--"I will go to the window!" and
I rushed from the pavilion and ran like one out of his mind.

"'The inspiration was that the window of The Yellow Room looks out
in such a way that the park wall, which abuts on the pavilion,
prevented my at once reaching the window. To get up to it one has
first to go out of the park. I ran towards the gate and, on my way,
met Bernier and his wife, the gate-keepers, who had been attracted
by the pistol reports and by our cries. In a few words I told them
what had happened, and directed the concierge to join Monsieur
Stangerson with all speed, while his wife came with me to open the
park gate. Five minutes later she and I were before the window of
The Yellow Room.

"'The moon was shining brightly and I saw clearly that no one had
touched the window. Not only were the bars that protect it intact,
but the blinds inside of them were drawn, as I had myself drawn
them early in the evening, as I did every day, though Mademoiselle,
knowing that I was tired from the heavy work I had been doing, had
begged me not to trouble myself, but leave her to do it; and they
were just as I had left them, fastened with an iron catch on the
inside. The assassin, therefore, could not have passed either in
or out that way; but neither could I get in.

"'It was unfortunate,--enough to turn one's brain! The door of
the room locked on the inside and the blinds on the only window
also fastened on the inside; and Mademoiselle still calling for
help!--No! she had ceased to call. She was dead, perhaps. But
I still heard her father, in the pavilion, trying to break down
the door.