My mistress never wore her hair in the way you
suggest, neither on that day nor on any other. She had her hair
drawn up, as usual, so that her beautiful forehead could be seen,
pure as that of an unborn child!"
Rouletabille grunted and set to work examining the door, finding
that it fastened itself automatically. He satisfied himself that
it could never remain open and needed a key to open it. Then we
entered the vestibule, a small, well-lit room paved with square
red tiles.
"Ah! This is the window by which the murderer escaped!" said
Rouletabille.
"So they keep on saying, monsieur, so they keep on saying! But if
he had gone off that way, we should have been sure to have seen him.
We are not blind, neither Monsieur Stangerson nor me, nor the
concierges who are in prison. Why have they not put me in prison,
too, on account of my revolver?"
Rouletabille had already opened the window and was examining the
shutters.
"Were these closed at the time of the crime?"
"And fastened with the iron catch inside," said Daddy Jacques, "and
I am quite sure that the murderer did not get out that way.
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