“So much the better,” said Rouletabille, coolly, “I don’t want to capture him. He may take himself off any way he can. _I will let him go—after I have seen his face._ That’s all I want. I shall know afterwards what to do so that as far as Mademoiselle Stangerson is concerned he shall be dead to her even though he continues to live. If I took him alive, Mademoiselle Stangerson and Robert Darzac would, perhaps, never forgive me! And I wish to retain their good-will and respect. “Seeing, as I have just now seen, Mademoiselle Stangerson pour a narcotic into her father’s glass, so that he might not be awake to interrupt the conversation she is going to have with her murderer, you can imagine she would not be grateful to me if I brought the man of The Yellow Room and the inexplicable gallery, bound and gagged, to her father. I realise now that if I am to save the unhappy lady, I must silence the man and not capture him. To kill a human being is no small thing. Besides, that’s not my business, unless the man himself makes it my business. On the other hand, to render him forever silent without the lady’s assent and confidence is to act on one’s own initiative and assumes a knowledge of everything with nothing for a basis. Fortunately, my friend, I have guessed, no, I have reasoned it all out. All that I ask of the man who is coming to-night is to bring me his face, so that it may enter—” “Into the circle?” “Exactly! And his face won’t surprise me!” “But I thought you saw his face on the night when you sprang into the chamber?” “Only imperfectly. The candle was on the floor; and, his beard—” “Will he wear his beard this evening?” “I think I can say for certain that he _will_. But the gallery is light and, now, I know—or—at least, my brain knows—and my eyes will see.” “If we are here only to see him and let him escape, why are we armed?” “Because, if the man of The Yellow Room and the inexplicable gallery knows that _I_ know, he is capable of doing anything! We should then have to defend ourselves.” “And you are sure he will come to-night?” “As sure as that you are standing there! This morning, at half-past ten o’clock, Mademoiselle Stangerson, in the cleverest way in the world, arranged to have no nurses to-night. She gave them leave of absence for twenty-four hours, under some plausible pretexts, and did not desire anybody to be with her but her father, while they are away. Her father, who is to sleep in the boudoir, has gladly consented to the arrangement. Darzac’s departure and what he told me, as well as the extraordinary precautions Mademoiselle Stangerson is taking to be alone to-night leaves me no room for doubt. She has prepared the way for the coming of the man whom Darzac dreads.” “That’s awful!” “It is!” “And what we saw her do was done to send her father to sleep?” “Yes.” “Then there are but two of us for to-night’s work?”