Page:Chipperfield--Unseen Hands.djvu/71

Rh hands were clasped tightly in her lap; but her voice was steady and quietly modulated, and her high-bred face as expressionless as a mask. What unknown reservoirs of strength and self-control lay behind that meek exterior! And this was the woman whom he had thought a spineless, colorless personality!

"We continued our meal as Peters went upstairs, when after quite an interval—it must have been five minutes at least—we heard a most dreadful cry, which brought us all to our feet. It was Peters and he came scrambling and stumbling downstairs screaming out with every breath in that frightful hoarse way. When he reached the dining-room door here he clung to it as if to keep from falling, and his face was the color of gray blotting-paper. 'For God's sake, go up, sir!' he said to Mr. Lorne. 'For God's sake, go up!'

"That was all they could get out of him, and Richard rushed upstairs with Gene after him. Nan ran over to Peters and commenced to shake him, but he would only groan; and I passed them and hurried upstairs myself. When I reached Julian's room Gene was lying face downward across the bed rolling from side to side and crying terribly, and Richard was standing in the doorway leading to the bathroom staring down at something which lay at his feet.

"I went to him, and there lay our poor Julian! I simply cannot tell you, Sergeant Odell! It seemed as if a wave of blood had engulfed him and then ebbed. It was a—a shambles! I covered my face with my hands and tottered back; and then Richard came to himself and led me away. And they tell me it was such a tiny wound in his throat,