“Is this usually lowered?” I asked.
“Usually. Can be raised for the sport of it. It’s part of the main drive, you see. It must have been hereabout that they smelt—”
He had no need to say more.
“Great God, what an unholy stench!”
“It is blood!”
“Bottles of it.”
Crofts Pendleton’s voice shook. “I hope—it’s not—anything serious.”
Just then nothing could have struck us as amusing. Lord Ludlow interjected, “Remember, sir, that there is a missing man—”
“Oh, Lord, look there! My boot!”
Belvoir lifted a foot for inspection, while I turned the eye of the torch upon it. The leather was stained with a fluid dark and thick.