Le mystère de la chambre jaune. English

  CHAPTER XVIII. Rouletabille Has Drawn a Circle Between the Two Bumps onHis Forehead

  (EXTRACT FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF JOSEPH ROULETABILLE, continued)

  "We separated on the thresholds of our rooms, with a melancholy shake ofthe hands. I was glad to have aroused in him a suspicion of error. Hiswas an original brain, very intelligent but--without method. I did notgo to bed. I awaited the coming of daylight and then went down tothe front of the chateau, and made a detour, examining every trace offootsteps coming towards it or going from it. These, however, were somixed and confusing that I could make nothing of them. Here I may makea remark,--I am not accustomed to attach an exaggerated importance toexterior signs left in the track of a crime.

  "The method which traces the criminal by means of the tracks of hisfootsteps is altogether primitive. So many footprints are identical.However, in the disturbed state of my mind, I did go into the desertedcourt and did look at all the footprints I could find there, seeking forsome indication, as a basis for reasoning.

  "If I could but find a right starting-point! In despair I seated myselfon a stone. For over an hour I busied myself with the common, ordinarywork of a policeman. Like the least intelligent of detectives I went onblindly over the traces of footprints which told me just no more thanthey could.

  "I came to the conclusion that I was a fool, lower in the scale ofintelligence than even the police of the modern romancer. Novelistsbuild mountains of stupidity out of a footprint on the sand, or froman impression of a hand on the wall. That's the way innocent men arebrought to prison. It might convince an examining magistrate or the headof a detective department, but it's not proof. You writers forget thatwhat the senses furnish is not proof. If I am taking cognisance of whatis offered me by my senses I do so but to bring the results within thecircle of my reason. That circle may be the most circumscribed, but ifit is, it has this advantage--it holds nothing but the truth! Yes, Iswear that I have never used the evidence of the senses but as servantsto my reason. I have never permitted them to become my master. They havenot made of me that monstrous thing,--worse than a blind man,--a manwho sees falsely. And that is why I can triumph over your error and yourmerely animal intelligence, Frederic Larsan.

  "Be of good courage, then, friend Rouletabille; it is impossible thatthe incident of the inexplicable gallery should be outside the circleof your reason. You know that! Then have faith and take thought withyourself and forget not that you took hold of the right end when youdrew that circle in your brain within which to unravel this mysteriousplay of circumstance.

  "To it, once again! Go--back to the gallery. Take your stand on yourreason and rest there as Frederic Larsan rests on his cane. You willthen soon prove that the great Fred is nothing but a fool.

  --30th October. Noon.

  JOSEPH ROULETABILLE."

  "I acted as I planned. With head on fire, I retraced my way to thegallery, and without having found anything more than I had seen onthe previous night, the right hold I had taken of my reason drew me tosomething so important that I was obliged to cling to it to save myselffrom falling.

  "Now for the strength and patience to find sensible traces to fit inwith my thinking--and these must come within the circle I have drawnbetween the two bumps on my forehead!

  --30th of October. Midnight."

  "JOSEPH ROULETABILLE."