Page:Anna Katharine Green - Leavenworth Case.djvu/19

Rh that yesterday was a living, breathing man. Advancing to the bed that was hung with heavy curtains, I raised my hand to put them back, when Mr. Gryce, drawing them from my clasp, disclosed lying upon the pillow a cold, calm face looking so natural I involuntarily started. "His death was too sudden to distort the features," he remarked, turning the head to one side in a way to make visible a ghastly wound in the back of the cranium. "Such a hole as that sends a man out of the world without much notice. The surgeon will convince you it could never have been inflicted by himself. It is a case of deliberate murder." Horrified, I drew hastily back, when my glance fell upon a door situated directly opposite me in the side of the wall towards the hall. It appeared to be the only outlet from the room, with the exception of the passage through which we had entered, and I could not help wondering if it was through this door the assassin had entered on his roundabout course to the library. But Mr. Gryce, seemingly observant of my glance, though his own was fixed upon the chandelier, made haste to remark, as if in reply to the inquiry in my face: "Found locked on the inside; may have come that way and may not; we don't pretend to say." Observing now that the bed was undisturbed in its arrangement, I remarked, "He had not retired, then?" "No; the tragedy must be ten hours old. Time for the murderer to have studied the situation and provided for all contingencies." "The murderer? Whom do you suspect?" I whispered. He looked impassively at the ring on my finger. "Every one and nobody. It is not for me to