It was unlocked and opened
about an inch. Everything was black: it was perfectly dark
outside. I felt very queer and shaky. Then I thought perhaps
Arnold had used his key; he did--strange things sometimes, and I
turned around. Just as I reached the foot of the staircase I
thought I heard some one coming. My nerves were going anyhow,
there in the dark, and I could scarcely stand. I got up as far
as the third or fourth step; then I felt that some one was coming
toward me on the staircase. The next instant a hand met mine on
the stair-rail. Some one brushed past me, and I screamed. Then
I must have fainted."
That was Louise's story. There could be no doubt of its truth,
and the thing that made it inexpressibly awful to me was that the
poor girl had crept down to answer the summons of a brother who
would never need her kindly offices again. Twice now, without
apparent cause, some one had entered the house by means of the
east entrance: had apparently gone his way unhindered through the
house, and gone out again as he had entered. Had this unknown
visitor been there a third time, the night Arnold Armstrong was
murdered? Or a fourth, the time Mr. Jamieson had locked some one
in the clothes chute?
Sleep was impossible, I think, for any of us. We dispersed
finally to bathe and dress, leaving Louise little the worse for
her experience. But I determined that before the day was over
she must know the true state of affairs. Another decision I
made, and I put it into execution immediately after breakfast.
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