"THE MYSTERY OF THE YELLOW ROOM."
Gentlemen of the Press having been tactfully requested not to give
away this awesome mystery, I am barred by the fastidious sense of
honour which distinguishes our profession from spoiling your pleasure
in this matter--a course which otherwise I should naturally have
preferred.
Not that I have any too clear idea of what it was all about or why an
innocent gentleman should be apparently going to be guillotined for
it. For there was no question of anyone having been murdered, the only
tangible crime before the Court that I could see being the abstraction
of some scientific papers. However don't imagine that this vagueness
will deprive you of the pleasures of shock. Only don't go thinking
about it. Remember _Rosamund_ and her Purple Jar.
I think I am free to tell you that a young journalist possessing
(characteristically) "fantastic humour and exuberant gaiety," a famous
amateur detective to boot, outwits all the official police, robs the
law of its prey and finds a long-lost mother for himself.
If this doesn't excite you sufficiently you can extract fun from
subsidiary details. It is always diverting to the unspoilt soul when
the principal lady goes to turn up one lamp and the other promptly
glows instead; or when, a particularly obvious and commonplace knock
assaulting the ear, she exclaims in tragic accents, "There's someone
at the door;" or when the detective drags from the bottom of the lake
a pair of the driest of dry old boots.
Or, if you are superior to this kind of thing, you can amuse yourself
by deducing from the practice before you the famous _Rules for
Revolvers_, which, _mutatis mutandis_, are as old as the Aristotelian
unities and, for all I (or, probably, you) know to the contrary, were
laid down at the same time by the same hand.
_Rule 1._ "All Innocent Characters expecting murderous assault
from Particularly Desperate Villains will provide themselves with
revolvers. Before retiring for the tragic night they will, grasping
the revolver firmly in the right hand, place it carefully (as
Professor LEACOCK would direct) on the revolver-stand. The P.D.V.
will then know what to do about it. (_Note_: P.D.V.'s do not carry
revolvers. They don't need to.)
_Rule 2._ "I.C.'s actually attacking P.D.V.'s will on no account fire,
but, advancing stealthily, will offer their pistol-wrist to the enemy,
who will at once lock it in a deathly grip. After a brief struggle,
swaying this way and that, the P.D.V. will, on the word 'Four,' put on
another beard and have the I.C. thrown into prison." And so forth.
I have no serious fault to find with these tactics. On the contrary.
But I rather think that in the first Act an incident was introduced
(no doubt in the spirit of the little girl's explanation _a propos_ of
her riddle, "That was just put in to make it more difficult"), which
was not quite cricket as it is played by the best people in these
stage shockers.
But I am on dangerous grounds. Let me say that Mr. HANNAFORD BENNETT
has been distinctly ingenious in his adaptation from M. GASTON
LEROUX'S hectic feuilleton; that Miss SYBIL THORNDIKE put in a much
finer quality of work than is usually supplied with this kind of
heroine; that Miss DAISY MARKHAM as her friend played very gaily
and prettily as long as the situation allowed it, and that Messrs.
FRANKLIN DYALL, LEWIS CASSON, NICHOLAS HANNEN, ARTHUR PUSEY, MAJOR
JONES, COLSTON MANSELL and the Prompter all did notable work.