"You are mad," retorted the miserable creature, falling into a desperate calmness. "She has been struck by lightning."
"No, you blackguard, she hasn't," wrathfully exclaimed his brother-in-law, jumping up. "Would you like to see her?"
"I also have to warn you," continued the inspector impassively, "that anything you say may be used as evidence against you."
A startled cry from the farther end of the passage arrested their attention.
"Mr. Carrados," called Hollyer, "oh, come at once."
At the open door of the other bedroom stood the lieutenant, his eyes still turned towards something in the room beyond, a little empty bottle in his hand.
"Dead!" he exclaimed tragically, with a sob, "with this beside her.
Dead just when she would have been free of the brute."
The blind man passed into the room, sniffed the air, and laid a gentle hand on the pulseless heart.
"Yes," he replied. "That, Hollyer, does not always appeal to the woman, strange to say."