ack against the mouldy wall of that old stairway shivering as
if I had been suddenly stricken with the ague. I had trembled in every
limb before ever I heard the sound of the sudden scuffle, and from a
variety of reasons--the relief of having Hollins's revolver withdrawn
from my nose; the knowledge that Maisie was close by; the gradual
wearing-down of my nerves during a whole day of heart-sickening
suspense,--but now the trembling had deepened into utter shaking: I heard
my own teeth chattering, and my heart going like a pump, as I stood
there, staring at the man's face, over which a grey pallor was quickly
spreading itself. And though I knew that he was as dead as ever a man can
be, I called to him, and the sound of my own voice frightened me.

"Mr. Hollins!" I cried. "Mr. Hollins!"

And then I was frightened still more, for, as if in answer to my summons,
but, of course, because of some muscular contraction following on death,
the dead lips slightly parted, and they looked as if they were grinning
at me. At that I lost what nerve I had left, and let out a cry, and
turned to run back into the room where we had talked. But as I turned
there were sounds at the foot of the stair, and the flash of a bull's-eye
lamp, and I heard Chisholm's voice down in the gateway below.

"Hullo, up there!" he was demanding. "Is there anybody above?"

It seemed as if I was bursting my chest when I got an answer out to him.

"Oh, man!" I shouted, "come up! There's me here--and there's murder!"

I heard him exclaim in a dismayed and surprised fashion, and mutter some
words to somebody that was evidently with him, and then there was heavy
tramping below, and presently Chisholm's face appeared round the corner;
and as he held his bull's-eye before him, its light fell full on Hollins,
and he jumped back a step or two.

"Mercy on us!" he let out. "What's all this? The man's lying dead!"

"Dead enough, Chisholm!" said I, gradually getting the better of my
fright. "And murdered, too! But who murdered him, God knows--I don't! He
trapped me in here, not ten minutes ago, and had me at the end of a
revolver, and we came to terms, and he left me--and he was no sooner down
the stairs here than I heard a bit of a scuffle, and him fall and groan,
and I ran out to find--that! And somebody was off and away--have you seen
nobody outside there?"

"You can't see an inch before your eyes--the night's that black," he
answered, bending over the dead man.