"Her hair was done up in bands, wasn't it?
I feel sure that on that evening, the evening of the crime, she had her hair arranged in bands." "Then you are mistaken, Monsieur Rouletabille," replied the magistrate; "Mademoiselle Stangerson that evening had her hair drawn up in a knot on the top of her head,--her usual way of arranging it--her forehead completely uncovered.

I can assure you, for we have carefully examined the wound.

There was no blood on the hair, and the arrangement of it has not been disturbed since the crime was committed." "You are sure! You are sure that, on the night of the crime, she had not her hair in bands ?" "Quite sure," the magistrate continued, smiling, "because I remember the Doctor saying to me, while he was examining the wound, 'It is a great pity Mademoiselle Stangerson was in the habit of drawing her hair back from her forehead.

If she had worn it in bands, the blow she received on the temple would have been weakened.' It seems strange to me that you should attach so much importance to this point." "Oh! if she had not her hair in bands, I give it up," said Rouletabille, with a despairing gesture.
"And was the wound on her temple a bad one ?" he asked presently.
"Terrible." "With what weapon was it made ?" "That is a secret of the investigation." "Have you found the weapon--whatever it was ?" The magistrate did not answer.
"And the wound in the throat ?" Here the examining magistrate readily confirmed the decision of the doctor that, if the murderer had pressed her throat a few seconds longer, Mademoiselle Stangerson would have died of strangulation.
"The affair as reported in the 'Matin,'" said Rouletabille eagerly, "seems to me more and more inexplicable.

Can you tell me, Monsieur, how many openings there are in the pavilion?
I mean doors and windows." "There are five," replied Monsieur de Marquet, after having coughed once or twice, but no longer resisting the desire he felt to talk of the whole of the incredible mystery of the affair he was investigating.
"There are five, of which the door of the vestibule is the only entrance to the pavilion,--a door always automatically closed, which cannot be opened, either from the outer or inside, except with the two special keys which are never out of the possession of either Daddy Jacques or Monsieur Stangerson.