Tony Walker

"'Here I am, Miss Pendleham,' he said.

What was she doing?'

He could only see her body from the waist down.

The rest was buried in some clothes.

He tiptoed into the closet and gingerly pulled the clothes aside.

And then he sprang back with a clipped cry, for he was gazing into the battered dead face of Amelia Lawnan.

She was leaning back against the wall, and she had drawn Miss Pendleham's head down on her breast.

Her hands clutched her neck so fiercely and the nails were driven in so deep that the blood was seeping down over her lace collar.

The last shred of self-control left him.

The candlestick fell from his hand and he ran blunderingly from the room and down the stairs.

The air seemed full of screams and laughter.

Something death-cold was pressed against his face.

Leaping figures ran beside him till at last he staggered, whimpering out into the night.