Page:Arthur Stringer--The House of Intrigue.djvu/115

 S I stood with my face pressed flat against a panel of that hardwood door a shiver of excitement went through my stooping body. I had stumbled across a bigger movement than I had dreamed of. And that movement had taken on a turn which was plainly staggering to my two old friends in rusty black. For even through my door-panel I could feel the silence that struck them dumb, for a moment, at that massive doctor's unlooked-for message.

"But that girl can't be dead!" quaveringly protested one of the old brothers. "Why, she was as alive as I am, forty minutes ago!"

"More so, probably," amended the other brother tartly. "For instead of gasping over this—this calamity, we'd better try to find out what's best to be done!"

This was followed by a moment or two of unbroken silence.

"Who knows about this?" demanded the same