He started back as he saw me.
“Pedro! Pedro!” I cried, “have the ladies been awakened?”
“Yes, yes! there is terrible trouble, sir. What has happened? What has happened?”
“A tragedy,” I said, shortly. “Pull yourself together. Where is Madame de Stämer?”
Pedro uttered some exclamation in Spanish and stood, pale-faced, swaying before me, a dishevelled figure in a dressing gown. And now in the background Mrs. Fisher appeared. One frightened glance she cast in my direction, and would have hurried across the hall but I intercepted her.
“Where are you going, Mrs. Fisher?” I demanded. “What has happened here?”
“To Madame, to Madame,” she sobbed, pointing toward the corridor which communicated with Madame de Stämer’s bedchamber.
I heard a frightened cry proceeding from that direction, and recognized the voice of Nita, the girl who acted as Madame’s maid. Then I heard Val Beverley.
“Go and fetch Mrs. Fisher, Nita, at once—and try to behave yourself. I have trouble enough.”
I entered the corridor and pulled up short. Val Beverley, fully dressed, was kneeling beside Madame de Stämer, who wore a kimono over her night-robe, and who lay huddled on the floor immediately outside the door of her room!