Henry now observed that the dog was stretched on the floor at Signor Mannetti's feet.
"Still asleep?"
Mary knelt to pat the spaniel and started back.
"How horribly cold he is!"
"For ever asleep—a martyr to science. He was to die on Friday, remember. He has received euthanasia a little sooner, and nothing in his life has become him like the leaving of it. The last victim of the Grey Room. Mourn him not, he passed without a pang—as did his betters."
"But, but—you spoke of crime and criminals!" gasped Sir Walter.
"And truly. Great crimes have been committed in this room and great criminals committed them. Is a crime any less a crime because the doers have mouldered in their dishonored graves for nearly five hundred years?"
"Your handling of speech is not ours, and you use words differently. The old dog did not suffer, you say? How did he come to die—in his sleep?"
"Even so. Without a sigh, the last venerable victim of this murdering shadow."
"You saw him die, and yet were safe yourself, sir?" asked Lennox.