Marsland turned on her a searching questioning look. Her sympathy had conquered her vague fears of the presence of death, and she hesitatingly approached the body. Something on the table near the lamp attracted her attention. It was an open pocket-book and beside it were some papers which had evidently been removed from it.
“What does this mean?” she cried. “Some one has been here.”
“It is extraordinary,” said Marsland.
He stood between her and the arm-chair so as to hide the dead body from her. She stepped aside as if to seek in the appearance of the dead man an explanation of the rifled pocket-book.
“Don’t!” he said quickly, as he grasped her by the arm. “Do not touch it.”
His desire to save her from a shock awoke her feminine intuition.
“You mean he has been murdered?” she whispered, in a voice of dismay.
CHAPTER II
She hurried from the room in terror. Marsland remained a few minutes examining the papers that had been taken from the pocket-book.