The Mystery of the Yellow Room

At length we reached the door of the Yellow Room itself.

‘There is the door behind which some terrible scene took place,’ said Rouletabille, with a solemnity which, under any other circumstances, would have been comical.

CHAPTER VII (#ulink_aaa5ba17-4bc4-59d9-8bec-6c27b79e24d4)

IN WHICH ROULETABILLE SETS OUT ON AN EXPEDITION UNDER THE BED (#ulink_aaa5ba17-4bc4-59d9-8bec-6c27b79e24d4)

ROULETABILLE having pushed open the door of the Yellow Room paused on the threshold saying, with an emotion which I only later understood, ‘Ah, the perfume of the lady in black!’

The chamber was dark. Daddy Jacques was about to open the blinds when Rouletabille stopped him.

‘Did not the tragedy take place in complete darkness?’ he asked.

‘No, young man, I don’t think so. Mademoiselle always had a night-light on her table, and I lit it every evening before she went to bed. I was a sort of chambermaid, you must understand, when the evening came. The real chambermaid did not come here much before the morning. Mademoiselle worked late—far into the night.’

‘Where did the table with the night-light stand—far from the bed?’

‘Some way from the bed.’

‘Can you light the burner now?’

‘The lamp is broken and the oil that was in it was spilled when the table was upset. All the rest of the things in the room remain just as they were. I have only to open the blinds for you to see.’