"The Russian servant I had found apparently asleep, and, unless he
acted a part with supreme skill, he was a stupid and ignorant boor,
and as innocent of the murder as myself. There was still the Russian
princess whom he had expected to find, or had pretended to expect to
find, in the same room with the murdered man. I judged that she must
now be either upstairs with the servant, or that she had, without his
knowledge, already fled from the house. When I recalled his
apparently genuine surprise at not finding her in the drawing-room,
this latter supposition seemed the more probable. Nevertheless, I
decided that it was my duty to make a search, and after a second
hurried look for the weapon among the cushions of the divan, and upon
the floor, I cautiously crossed the hall and entered the dining-room.

"The single candle was still flickering in the draught, and showed
only the white cloth. The rest of the room was draped in shadows. I
picked up the candle, and, lifting it high above my head, moved
around the corner of the table. Either my nerves were on such a
stretch that no shock could strain them further, or my mind was
inoculated to horrors, for I did not cry out at what I saw nor
retreat from it. Immediately at my feet was the body of a beautiful
woman, lying at full length upon the floor, her arms flung out on
either side of her, and her white face and shoulders gleaming, dully,
in the unsteady light of the candle. Around her throat was a great
chain of diamonds, and the light played upon these and made them
flash and blaze in tiny flames. But the woman who wore them was dead,
and I was so certain as to how she had died that, without an
instant's hesitation, I dropped on my knees beside her and placed my
hands above her heart. My fingers again touched the thin slit of a
wound. I had no doubt in my mind but that this was the Russian
princess, and when I lowered the candle to her face I was assured