It was what he called a reconstruction. While he
was holding it there, I think that he must have had a fit, or it
may have been remorse, we shall never know. He called out and I
hurried across the room to him. I tried to snatch the dagger
away--I did so, in fact--but I must have been too late. He had
already applied that slight movement of the fingers which was
necessary. The doctor has just left. He says that death must
have been instantaneous."
"But this is horrible!" Francis cried out into the well of
darkness.
"A person is on the way from Scotland Yard," the voice continued,
without change or tremor. "When he has satisfied himself, I am
going to bed. He is here now. Good-night!"
Francis tried to speak again but his words beat against a wall of
silence. He sat upon the edge of the bed, shivering. In that
moment of agony he seemed to hear again the echo of Oliver
Hilditch's mocking words:
"My death is the one thing in the world which would make my wife
happy!"
CHAPTER VII
There was a good deal of speculation at the Sheridan Club, of
which he was a popular and much envied member, as to the cause
for the complete disappearance from their midst of Francis Ledsam
since the culmination of the Hilditch tragedy.
"Sent back four topping briefs, to my knowledge, last week," one
of the legal luminaries of the place announced to a little group
of friends and fellow-members over a before-dinner cocktail.
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