Page:Burton Stevenson--The marathon mystery.djvu/75

Rh garding the risk she runs of compromising herself. (The skeleton, then, must be a particularly grisly one!)

Miss Croydon goes to the appointment alone, but with the precaution of taking a pistol with her. (Query—Was she accustomed to using a pistol?) She is admitted by Thompson, who has barely awakened from a drunken sleep! A ten-minute parley follows, during which he states his demands. She, perhaps, finds them excessive, impossible to comply with, and tells him so. He grows angry, abusive, perhaps attempts some violence. She produces her pistol, and at that moment a man steals behind him from the inner room and strikes him down. Then, standing over him, he deliberately shoots him through the heart. Miss Croydon, perceiving his intention, instinctively raises her own pistol and fires at him. The shots are simultaneous, which explains the single loud report heard by the janitor. The murderer calmly opens the door and escapes.

Mrs. Delroy is at her library window, anxiously awaiting her sister’s return. She has been absent much longer than she expected to be, and Mrs. Delroy is growing alarmed. Enter Jack Drysdale, the sister’s affianced. Mrs. Delroy tries desperately to get rid of him, even lies to do so, in the effort to pre-