Besides, the opening of a door or window by this man whom
we were hunting, without our having perceived it, would have been
more inexplicable than his disappearance.
"Where is he?--where is he?--He could not have got away by a
door or a window, nor by any other way. He could not have passed
through our bodies!
"I confess that, for the moment, I felt 'done for.' For the gallery
was perfectly lighted, and there was neither trap, nor secret door
in the walls, nor any sort of hiding-place. We moved the chairs and
lifted the pictures. Nothing!--nothing! We would have looked into
a flower-pot, if there had been one to look into!"
When this mystery, thanks to Rouletabille, was naturally explained,
by the help alone of his masterful mind, we were able to realise
that the murderer had got away neither by a door, a window, nor the
stairs--a fact which the judges would not admit.
CHAPTER XVII
The Inexplicable Gallery
"Mademoiselle Stangerson appeared at the door of her ante-room,"
continues Rouletabille's note-book. "We were near her door in the
gallery where this incredible phenomenon had taken place.
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