young man, that he was in evening dress, and that he had fled in such
haste that he had not stopped to close the door behind him.

"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