The Mystery of the Boule Cabinet | Page 5

the usual ones."
Godfrey shrugged his shoulders.
"I should say not," he agreed, and turned away to an inspection of the
room.
"What can you tell us about it, Mr. Lester?" Goldberger questioned.
I told all I knew--how Parks had announced a man's arrival, how
Vantine and I had come downstairs together, how Vantine had called
me, and finally how Parks had identified the body as that of the strange
caller.
"Have you any theory about it?" Goldberger asked.
"Only that the call was merely a pretext--that what the man was really
looking for was a place where he could kill himself unobserved."
"How long a time elapsed after Parks announced the man before you
and Mr. Vantine came downstairs?"
"Half an hour, perhaps."
Goldberger nodded.
"Let's have Parks in," he said.
I opened the door and called to Parks, who was sitting on the bottom

step of the stair.
Goldberger looked him over carefully as he stepped into the room; but
there could be no two opinions about Parks. He had been with Vantine
for eight or ten years, and the earmarks of the competent and faithful
servant were apparent all over him.
"Do you know this man?" Goldberger asked, with a gesture toward the
body.
"No, sir," said Parks. "I never saw him till about an hour ago, when
Rogers called me downstairs and said there was a man to see Mr.
Vantine."
"Who is Rogers?"
"He's the footman, sir. He answered the door when the man rang."
"Well, and then what happened?"
"I took his card up to Mr. Vantine, sir."
"Did Mr. Vantine know him?"
"No, sir; he wanted to know what he wanted."
"What did he want?"
"I don't know, sir; he couldn't speak English hardly at all--he was
French, I think."
Goldberger looked down at the body again and nodded.
"Go ahead," he said.
"And he was so excited," Parks added, "that he couldn't remember what
little English he did know."
"What made you think he was excited?"

"The way he stuttered, and the way his eyes glinted. That's what makes
me think he just come in here to kill hisself quiet like--I shouldn't be
surprised if you found that he'd escaped from somewhere. I had a
notion to put him out without bothering Mr. Vantine--I wish now I
had--but I took his card up, and Mr. Vantine said for him to wait; so I
come downstairs again, and showed the man in here, and said Mr.
Vantine would see him presently, and then Rogers and me went back to
our lunch and we sat there eating till the bell rang, and I came in and
found Mr. Vantine here."
"Do you mean to say that you and Rogers went away and left this
stranger here by himself?"
"The servants' dining-room is right at the end of the hall, sir. We left
the door open so that we could see right along the hall, clear to the front
door. If he'd come out into the hall, we'd have seen him."
"And he didn't come out into the hall while you were there?"
"No, sir."
"Did anybody come in?"
"Oh, no, sir; the front door has a snap-lock. It can't be opened from the
outside without a key."
"So you are perfectly sure that no one either entered or left the house by
the front door while you and Rogers were sitting there?"
"Nor by the back door either, sir; to get out the back way, you have to
pass through the room where we were."
"Where were the other servants?"
"The cook was in the kitchen, sir. This is the housemaid's afternoon
out."
The coroner paused. Godfrey and Simmonds had both listened to this
interrogation, but neither had been idle. They had walked softly about

the room, had looked through a door opening into another room beyond,
had examined the fastenings of the windows, and had ended by looking
minutely over the carpet.
"What is the room yonder used for?" asked Godfrey, pointing to the
connecting door.
"It's a sort of store-room just now, sir," said Parks. "Mr. Vantine is just
back from Europe, and we've been unpacking in there some of the
things he bought while abroad."
"I guess that's all," said Goldberger, after a moment. "Send in Mr.
Vantine, please."
Parks went out, and Vantine came in a moment later. He corroborated
exactly the story told by Parks and myself, but he added one detail.
"Here is the man's card," he said, and held out a square of pasteboard.
Goldberger took the card, glanced at it, and passed it on to Simmonds.
"That don't tell us much," said the latter, and gave the card to Godfrey.
I looked over his shoulder and saw that it contained a single engraved
line:
M. THÉOPHILE D'AURELLE
"Except that