"Mr. Hollins!" I cried. "Mr. Hollins!"
And then I was frightened still more, for, as if in answer to my summons, but, of course, because of some muscular contraction following on death, the dead lips slightly parted, and they looked as if they were grinning at me. At that I lost what nerve I had left, and let out a cry, and turned to run back into the room where we had talked. But as I turned there were sounds at the foot of the stair, and the flash of a bull's-eye lamp, and I heard Chisholm's voice down in the gateway below.
"Hullo, up there!" he was demanding. "Is there anybody above?"
It seemed as if I was bursting my chest when I got an answer out to him.
"Oh, man!" I shouted, "come up! There's me here—and there's murder!"
I heard him exclaim in a dismayed and surprised fashion, and mutter some words to somebody that was evidently with him, and then there was heavy tramping below, and presently Chisholm's face appeared round the corner; and as he held his bull's-eye before him, its light fell full on Hollins, and he jumped back a step or two.
"Mercy on us!" he let out. "What's all this? The man's lying dead!"
"Dead enough, Chisholm!" said I, gradually getting the better of my fright. "And murdered, too! But who murdered him, God knows—I don't! He trapped me in here, not ten minutes ago, and had me at the end of a revolver, and we came to terms, and he left me—and he was no sooner down the stairs here than I heard a bit of a scuffle, and him fall and groan, and I ran out to find—that! And somebody was off and away—have you seen nobody outside there?"
"You can't see an inch before your eyes—the night's that black," he answered, bending over the dead man. "We've only just come—round from the house. But whatever were you doing here, yourself?"
"I came to see if I could find any trace of Miss Dunlop in this old part," I answered, "and he told me—just before this happened—she's in the tower above, and safe. And I'll go up there now, Chisholm; for if she's heard aught of all this—"