The examining magistrate is right; nothing stranger than this crime
has ever been known."
"Have you any idea of the way by which the murderer escaped?" I
asked.
"None," replied Rouletabille--"none, for the present. But I have
an idea as to the revolver; the murderer did not use it."
"Good Heavens! By whom, then, was it used?"
"Why--by Mademoiselle Stangerson."
"I don't understand,--or rather, I have never understood," I said.
Rouletabille shrugged his shoulders.
"Is there nothing in this article in the 'Matin' by which you were
particularly struck?"
"Nothing,--I have found the whole of the story it tells equally
strange."
"Well, but--the locked door--with the key on the inside?"
"That's the only perfectly natural thing in the whole article."
"Really!--And the bolt?"
"The bolt?"
"Yes, the bolt--also inside the room--a still further protection
against entry? Mademoiselle Stangerson took quite extraordinary
precautions! It is clear to me that she feared someone. That was
why she took such precautions--even Daddy Jacques's revolver
--without telling him of it.
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