“ ‘What do you want?’ she cried. ‘Who are you?’
“I swung round in my chair, to find a man standing on the lawn outside, in the centre of the light. He was facing us, and as we stared at him he came nearer till he was almost in the room. And the first thing that struck me was that he looked a little agitated.
“ ‘You will excuse me appearing like this,’ he said, ‘but——’ He broke off and looked at me. ‘Might I have a word with you alone, sir?’
“I glanced at the others: obviously he was a stranger. No trace of recognition appeared on anyone’s face, and I began to feel a little suspicious.
“ ‘What is it?’ I cried. ‘What can you possibly want to speak to me about that you can’t say now?’
“He shrugged his shoulders slightly. ‘As you will,’ he answered. ‘My idea was to avoid frightening the ladies. In the room at the other end of the house a man has been murdered.’
“For a moment everyone was too thunderstruck to reply; then Hilda gave a choking cry.
“ ‘What sort of a man?’ she said, breathlessly.
“ ‘An elderly man of, I should think, about sixty,’ returned the other, gravely, and Hilda buried her face in her hands.
“ ‘I will come with, you at once, sir,’ I said, hurriedly, and the two other men rose. Instinctively, I think, we all knew it must be old Marley: there was no one else it could be. But the sudden shock of it had dazed us all. I glanced at Joan. She was staring at the man like a girl bereft of her senses, and I put my hand reassuringly on her shoulder. And then she looked up at me, and the expression in her eyes pulled me together. It was like a cold douche, and it acted instantaneously. Because it wasn’t horror or dazed stupefaction that I read on her face: it was terror—agonised terror. And suddenly I remembered her air of suppressed excitement earlier in the evening.”