which hung completely across it, I found
it not so easy to proceed as I had imagined. The stealthiness of my
action held back my hand; then the faint sounds I heard within advised
me that she was not alone, and that she might very readily regard with
displeasure my unexpected entrance by a door of which she was possibly
ignorant. I tell you all this because, if by any chance I was seen
hesitating in face of that curtain, doubts might have been raised which
I am anxious to dispel." Here his eyes left my face for that of the
inspector.

"It certainly had a bad look,--that I don't deny; but I did not think
of appearances then. I was too anxious to complete a task which had
suddenly presented unexpected difficulties. That I listened before
entering was very natural, and when I heard no voice, only something
like a great sigh, I ventured to lift the curtain and step in. She was
sitting, not where I had left her, but on a couch at the left of the
usual entrance, her face toward me, and--you know how, Inspector. It was
her last sigh I had heard. Horrified, for I had never looked on death
before, much less crime, I reeled forward, meaning, I presume, to
rush down the steps shouting for help, when, suddenly, something fell
splashing on my shirt-front, and I saw myself marked with a stain of
blood. This both frightened and bewildered me, and it was a minute or
two before I had the courage to look up. When I did do so, I saw whence
this drop had come. Not from her, though the red stream was pouring down
the rich folds of her dress, but from a sharp needle-like instrument
which had been thrust, point downward, in the open work of an antique
lantern hanging near the doorway. What had happened to me might have
happened to any one who chanced to be in that spot at that special
moment, but I did not realize this then. Covering the splash with my
hands, I edged myself back to the door by which I had entered, watching
those deathful eyes and crushing under my feet the remnants of some
broken china with which the carpet was bestrewn. I had no thought of
her, hardly any of myself. To cross the room was all; to escape as
secretly as I came, before the portiere so nearly drawn between me
and the main hall should stir under the hand of some curious person
entering. It was my first sight of blood; my first contact with crime,
and that was what I did,--I fled."

The last word was uttered with a gasp. Evidently he was greatly affected
by this