than myself if I could prove his theory to be correct. But we cannot
tell. Everything depends upon what we see for ourselves within the
next few minutes.'

"When we reached the house, Lyle broke open the fastenings of one of
the windows on the ground floor, and, hidden by the trees in the
garden, we scrambled in. We found ourselves in the reception-room,
which was the first room on the right of the hall. The gas was still
burning behind the colored glass and red silk shades, and when the
daylight streamed in after us it gave the hall a hideously dissipated
look, like the foyer of a theatre at a matinee, or the entrance to an
all-day gambling hell. The house was oppressively silent, and because
we knew why it was so silent we spoke in whispers. When Lyle turned
the handle of the drawing-room door, I felt as though some one had put
his hand upon my throat. But I followed close at his shoulder, and
saw, in the subdued light of many-tinted lamps, the body of Chetney at
the foot of the divan, just as Lieutenant Sears had described it. In
the drawing-room we found the body of the Princess Zichy, her arms
thrown out, and the blood from her heart frozen in a tiny line across
her bare shoulder. But neither of us, although we searched the floor
on our hands and knees, could find the weapon which had killed her.

"'For Arthur's sake,' I said, 'I would have given a thousand pounds if
we had found the knife in her hand, as he said we would.'

"'That we have not found it there,' Lyle answered, 'is to my mind the
strongest proof that he is telling the truth, that he left the house
before the murder took place. He is not a fool, and had he stabbed his
brother and this woman, he would have seen that by placing the knife
near her he could help to make it appear as if she had killed Chetney