"It's so," he said; "she's dead."
Bert burst out sobbing; but, struggling with his sobs, he searched beneath the mattress and brought out the diamond star, which he gave to the officers.
"That's it," he said, "and please, when you give it to Lady Millicent, will you say that Prin was very sorry at the last?"
"All right, I'll see about it," said the man, conscious of a queer lump in his throat as he spoke. "And now, what are you going to do? You must get some woman to come and help you."
"The nurse will be here directly," said Bert, "and the doctor too is coming."
"Oh, then, they'll see about things," said the man, relieved. He was oppressed by the atmosphere of that gloomy room and the awful presence of death, and was anxious to get away, though it seemed hard to leave the boy alone with his dead.
"Come, Joe," he said to his subordinate, "we can do no good here."
So they went out. At the head of the area steps, they encountered the doctor, and paused to have a few words with him. But they did not descend again to the room. Even a police officer may have a heart too soft for his profession, and familiarity with painful scenes may fail to render it callous.
[CHAPTER XIII]
Dead and Alive Again