"Is there any one else in the house besides you?"
"There are two old servants. One of them is watching the room now."
"You had better go back yourself, and stop there until we arrive. Leave everything exactly as you found it. Don't disturb the body and don't touch or move a single object. We shall be with you in a quarter of an hour. Do you quite understand?"
"Quite," said Colin.
He hung up the receiver as the detective rang off, and, shivering slightly from the cold, made his way back to where he had left the housekeeper.
"They're coming down almost at once," he said. "I'll wait here and let them in."
She moved back, as though glad to escape from the sight of the room.
"Then I'd better go up and get your dressing gown," she replied. "You'll catch your death standing about like that with nothing on."
Colin nodded gratefully. "You might fetch me some slippers, too, while you're about it," he said. "You'll find a pair alongside the bed. I turned out in such a hurry I forgot to put them on."
With trembling steps and holding tightly to the banisters, Mrs. Ramsay slowly ascended the staircase. She returned in a few minutes carrying the desired articles, and, stepping forward to meet her, Colin took them from her hands.