And he drew him, clasping him by the fist, toward the New Château, I following. I saw that a great change had come over Rouletabille. He was completely his old self again. Now that he was so happily relieved of the sorrow of separation from his mother which had pressed on his mind ever since his early childhood, now that he had again found the perfume of the Lady in Black, he seemed to have reconquered all the forces of his spirit and was ready to enter eagerly into the strife against the mysteries which surrounded us. And, until the day when all was ended—until the last supreme moment—the most dramatic that I have ever lived through in the whole course of my existence—the moment in which life and death spoke out and were explained by his lips—he never again made a sign of hesitation in the forward march: he never spoke another word which could have been taken as an attempt to warn us against the dreadful situation which arose from the siege of the Square Tower by the attack of that night between the twelfth and thirteenth of April.
Bernier resisted him no further. When others tried to do so, he held them in his grasp until they cried for mercy.
Bernier walked in front of us, his head bent, looking like an accused man who is being led on his way to trial. And when we reached Rouletabille’s room, the young reporter bade Bernier sit down facing us. I lighted the lamp. Rouletabille sat silent for a moment, looking at Bernier, lighting his pipe the while, and evidently seeking to read in the face of the concierge all the honesty which he could find. Soon his knitted brows relaxed, his eye grew clearer and, after he had blown a few rings of smoke toward the ceiling, he said:
“Well, Bernier, how did they kill him?”
Bernier shook his shaggy head.
“I have sworn to say nothing and I will say nothing, monsieur. And, upon my word of honor, I know nothing.”
“All right,” went on Rouletabille, unconcernedly. “Tell me what you don’t know. For if you do not tell me what you don’t know, Bernier, I will be responsible for nothing, no matter what happens.”
“And for what could you be responsible in any case, monsieur?”
“For one thing, I won’t answer for your safety, Bernier.”
“For my safety? I have done nothing.”