“M. Stangerson. It was still closed. I remember remarking aloud: ‘Daddy Jacques must surely have opened it while we were away.’ “Q. Strange!—Do you recollect, Monsieur Stangerson, if during your absence, and before going out, he had opened it? You returned to the laboratory at six o’clock and resumed work? “Mademoiselle Stangerson. Yes, monsieur. “Q. And you did not leave the laboratory from that hour up to the moment when you entered your chamber? “M. Stangerson. Neither my daughter nor I, monsieur. We were engaged on work that was pressing, and we lost not a moment,—neglecting everything else on that account. “Q. Did you dine in the laboratory? “A. For that reason. “Q. Are you accustomed to dine in the laboratory? “A. We rarely dine there. “Q. Could the murderer have known that you would dine there that evening? “M. Stangerson. Good Heavens!—I think not. It was only when we returned to the pavilion at six o’clock, that we decided, my daughter and I, to dine there. At that moment I was spoken to by my gamekeeper, who detained me a moment, to ask me to accompany him on an urgent tour of inspection in a part of the woods which I had decided to thin. I put this off until the next day, and begged him, as he was going by the château, to tell the steward that we should dine in the laboratory. He left me, to execute the errand and I rejoined my daughter, who was already at work. “Q. At what hour, mademoiselle, did you go to your chamber while your father continued to work there? “A. At midnight. “Q. Did Daddy Jacques enter The Yellow Room in the course of the evening? “A. To shut the blinds and light the night-light. “Q. He saw nothing suspicious? “A. He would have told us if he had seen. Daddy Jacques is an honest man and very attached to me. “Q. You affirm, Monsieur Stangerson, that Daddy Jacques remained with you all the time you were in the laboratory? “M. Stangerson. I am sure of it. I have no doubt of that. “Q. When you entered your chamber, mademoiselle, you immediately shut the door and locked and bolted it? That was taking unusual precautions, knowing that your father and your servant were there? Were you in fear of something, then? “A. My father would be returning to the château and Daddy Jacques would be going to his bed. And, in fact, I _did_ fear something. “Q. You were so much in fear of something that you borrowed Daddy Jacques’s revolver without telling him you had done so? “A. That is true. I did not wish to alarm anybody,—the more, because my fears might have proved to have been foolish. “Q. What was it you feared?