Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-01-16
CHAPTER XVII.
The lnexplicabIs Gallery.

| Incredible phenomenon had taken place. There are moments when one feels as If ones brain were about to burst. A bullet in the head. fracture of the skull, the seat of reason shat tered-with only these can l compare | the sensation which exhausted and left | me void of sense.
 Happily Mile. Stangerson appeared on the threshold of her anteroom. I saw her, and that helped to relieve my chaotic state of mind. l breathed her; l inhalch the perfume of the lady in black who had been kind to me in my childhood whom l should never see again. l would have given ten years of my life--half my life-to see once more the lady in black. Alas, no more meet her but from time to time. and yet. and yet, how the mem- ory of that perfume, felt by me alone. carries me back to the days of my childhood, Ii was this sharp reminder from my beloved perfume of the lady in black which made me go to her. dressed wholly in white and so pale so pale and so beautiful. on the threshold of the inexplicable gallery. Her beau tiful golden halr. gathered into knot on the back of her neck, left visible the red scar on her temple which had so nearly been the cause of her death. | When l first got on the right track of the mystery of this case had imagined that on the night of the trag- edy in the yellow room Mile. Sanger son had worn her hair in bands. But. | then, how could 1 have imagined other wise when had not been in the vel low room?
 But now. since the occurrence of the inexpicable gallery. did not req | son at all stood there. stupid, before the apparition-so pale and so beauti- | ful-of Mile. Stangerson. She was clad in dressing gown of dreamy white. One might have taken her to be a ghost-a lovely phantom. Her father | took her in his arms and kissed her passionately, as If he had recovered her after being long lost to him. I dared not question her. He drew her ! into the room, and we followed them | for we had to know! The door of the boudoir was open. The terrified faces of the two nurses craned toward us. Mile Stangerson inquired the meaning of all the disturbance. That she was not in her own room was quite easily explained-quite easily. She had a fancy not to sleep that night in her chamber. but in the boudoir with her nurses. locking the door on them. Since the night of the crime she had expert eneed feelings of terror. and fears came over her that are easily to be compre- hended.
 But who could imagine that on that particular night when he was to come she would by q mere chance determine to shut herself in with her women? Who would think that she would act contrary to her fathers wish to sleep in the drawing room? Who could be- lieve that the letter which had so re- gently been on the table in her room would no longer be there? He who could understand all this would have to assume that Mile. Stangerson knew that the mYrderer was coming-she could not prevent his coming again unknown to her father, unknown to all but to M Robert Darzac For he must know 1t now. Perhaps he had known 1t before! Did he remember that phrase fin the Elysee garden, Must commit a crime. then, to win your Against whom the crime if not against the obstacle, against the murderer? 'Ah, l would kill him with my own handv And replied. You have not answered my question: That was the very truth. In truth. in truth M. Dar- zac knew the murderer so well that, while wishing 10 kill him himself. he was afraid l should find him. There could be but two reasons why he had assisted me in my investigation. First, because l have forced him to do 1t, and. second. because she would be the better protected
 'I am in the chamber-her room. look at her. also at the place where the letter had just now been. She has pos sessed herself of 1t; 1t was evidently intended for her-eyidently. How she tremhles Trembles at the strange story her father is telling her. of the presence of the murderer in her cham Der and of the pursuit. But it is plain ly to be seen that she is not wholly satisfied by the assurance given her until she had been told that the murderer by some incomprehensible means had been able to elude us.
 Then followed silence. What silence! We are all there looking at her-her father, Larsan. Daddy Jacques and I. What were we all thinking of in the silence? After the events of that night. of she mystery of the inex- plicable gallery, of the prodlgious fact of the presence of the murderer in her room, it seemed to me that all cur thoughts might have been translated into the words which were addressed to her, .You who know of this mys- tery, explain 1t to us and we shall per haps be able to save you How I lOnged to save her--from herself and from the other. It brought the tears