On the Watch explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Secrecy and Silence

  The chapter revolves around hidden plans, secret signals, and the deliberate drugging of characters to ensure silence for a clandestine meeting.

• The Outsider as Detective

  Rouletabille, a young journalist, operates independently of the official police (Larsan) and sets his own trap based on his reasoning.

• Love and Sacrifice

  Mademoiselle Stangerson's actions—drugging her father and arranging solitude—are driven by a desperate love that compels her to meet the murderer, while Rouletabille seeks to protect her from the consequences.

Characters to notice

• Joseph Rouletabille

  Devises the night watch strategy, explains his intention to see the man's face rather than capture him, and embraces Sainclair before taking his post.

• Sainclair

  Narrates the chapter, takes up position in the dark closet as instructed, and reflects on the danger of the night's work.

• Frédéric Larsan

  Dines with Rouletabille and Sainclair, engages in cryptic conversation about the case, then suddenly collapses, apparently drugged.

• Mademoiselle Stangerson

  Is revealed to have drugged her father's drink to ensure he sleeps, and has arranged for the nurses to be absent, preparing for the murderer's visit.

• Monsieur Robert Darzac

  Is mentioned as having departed and having told Rouletabille something that confirms the night's plan; his dread of the man is noted.

• Mr. Arthur W. Rance

  Is heard moving in his room before the watch begins; his past in America and relations with the Stangersons are discussed at dinner.

Key passages

• “If you see anything before I do, you must let me know. If the man gets into the 'right' gallery by any other way than the 'off-turning' gallery, you will see him before I shall, because you have a view along the whole length of the 'right' gallery, while I can only command a view of the 'off-turning' gallery.”

  Rouletabille explains that Sainclair will have a better view of the right gallery and should signal him by dropping a curtain if the man appears there first.

  Rouletabille outlines the surveillance plan and the signal system.

• “I don't want to capture him. He may take himself off any way he can. I will let him go—after I have seen his face. That's all I want.”

  Rouletabille states his sole objective is to identify the man, not to arrest him.

  Rouletabille reveals his unusual strategy of letting the murderer escape.

• “Seeing, as I have just now seen, Mademoiselle Stangerson pour a narcotic into her father's glass, so that he might not be awake to interrupt the conversation she is going to have with her murderer, you can imagine she would not be grateful to me if I brought the man of The Yellow Room and the inexplicable gallery, bound and gagged, to her father.”

  Rouletabille explains that Mademoiselle Stangerson drugged her father to allow a private meeting with the murderer, and that capturing the man would anger her.

  Rouletabille interprets Mademoiselle Stangerson's actions and justifies his plan to let the man go.

• “I think, Monsieur Rouletabille, that we've not much more to do at the Glandier, and that we shan't sleep here many more nights.”

  Larsan suggests the case is nearly solved and they will soon leave the château.

  Larsan hints at the impending resolution of the mystery.

• “He is asleep.”

  Rouletabille confirms that Larsan has fallen into a drugged sleep.

  After Larsan collapses, Rouletabille checks his pulse and pronounces him asleep.