Page:Randall Parrish--My Lady of the South.djvu/276

MY LADY OF THE SOUTH With heart beating rapidly I retraced my steps, moving backwards, the lantern held before me. Masterson, with two troopers, was at the foot of the ladder bending over the motionless form. The Corporal straightened up, his face white.

"Somers is dead, sir," he said, his voice full of horror, "knifed in the throat."

"Yes, Corporal. It is part of the mystery of this house. Within forty-eight hours two men have been killed in exactly the same way in those rooms above, and one lies in the cabin who was stabbed in this tunnel. Now Somers has gone, the assassin stealing on him the moment he put out the light. I jumped as soon as the man cried out, but was too late. All I got hold upon was this strip of cloth—whoever did the job must have fled down the passage."

"That's a bit of a woman's dress."

"Yes, and it is a woman who has done these murders."

The eyes of the man left my face to gaze down the tunnel, the same questioning thought in each mind.

"That is part of the mystery of it, lads: who is she? what is her object? where can she hide? We have just come through this way, and there has n't been a spot hidden from us big enough to conceal a mouse. It's my third trip through here to-night, and I have examined the walls from end to end. And yet that woman must have been in here somewhere. You heard the young lady say she shot at the creature who disappeared in this passage. She must have hidden somewhere, and then skulked along behind us, hoping to get a victim. Poor [ 262 ]