I started on, and he turned through a doorway at the left.

An instant later, I heard a sharp exclamation; then his voice calling
me.

"Lester! Come here!" he cried.

I ran back along the hall, into the room which he had entered. He was
standing just inside the door.

"Look there," he said, with a queer catch in his voice, and pointed
with a trembling hand to a dark object on the floor.

I moved aside to see it better. Then my heart gave a sickening throb;
for the object on the floor was the body of a man.




CHAPTER II

THE FIRST TRAGEDY


It needed but a glance to tell me that the man was dead. There could
be no life in that livid face, in those glassy eyes.

"Don't touch him," I said, for Vantine had started forward. "It's too
late."