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Page 10
She uttered an exclamation and bent nearer. "Blood!" cried she, and
stood staring, with rapidly paling cheeks and trembling form. "They
have killed her and he will never--"
As she did not finish I looked up.
"Do you think it was her blood?" she whispered in a horrified tone.
"There is every reason to believe so," rejoined I, pointing to a spot
where I had at last discovered not only one crimson drop but many,
scattered over the scarcely redder roses under my feet.
"Ah, it is worse than I thought," murmured she. "What are you going to
do? What can we do?
"I am going to send for another detective," returned I; and stepping
to the window I telegraphed at once to the man Harris to go for Mr.
Gryce.
"The one we saw at the Station?"
I bowed assent.
Her face lost something of its drawn expression. "O I am glad; he will
do something."
Subduing my indignation at this back thrust, I employed my time in
taking note of such details as had escaped my previous attention.
They were not many. The open writing-desk--in which, however I found
no letters or written documents of any kind, only a few sheets of
paper, with pen, ink, etc.; the brush and hairpins scattered on the
bureau as though the girl had been interrupted while arranging her
hair (if she had been interrupted); and the absence of any great pile
of work such as one would expect to see in a room set apart for
sewing, were all I could discover. Not much to help us, in case this
was to prove an affair of importance as I began to suspect.
With Mr. Gryce's arrival, however, things soon assumed a better shape.
He came to the basement door, was ushered in by your humble servant,
had the whole matter as far as I had investigated it, at his
finger-ends in a moment, and was up-stairs and in that room before I,
who am called the quickest man in the force as you all know, could
have time to determine just what difference his presence would make to
me in a pecuniary way in event of Mrs. Daniels' promises amounting to
anything. He did not remain there long, but when he came down I saw
that his interest was in no wise lessened.
"What kind of a looking girl was this?" he asked, hurrying up to Mrs.
Daniels who had withdrawn into a recess in the lower hall while all
this was going on. "Describe her to me, hair, eyes, complexion, etc.;
you know."
"I--I--don't know as I can," she stammered reluctantly, turning very
red in the face. "I am a poor one for noticing. I will call one of
the girls, I--" She was gone before we realized she had not finished
her sentence.
"Humph!" broke from Mr. Gryce's lips as he thoughtfully took down a
vase that stood on a bracket near by and looked into it.
I did not venture a word.
When Mrs. Daniels came back she had with her a trim-looking girl of
prepossessing appearance.
"This is Fanny," said she; "she knows Emily well, being in the habit
of waiting on her at table; she will tell you what you want to hear.
I have explained to her," she went on, nodding towards Mr. Gryce with
a composure such as she had not before displayed; "that you are
looking for your niece who ran away from home some time ago to go
into some sort of service."
"Certainly, ma'am," quoth that gentleman, bowing with mock admiration
to the gas-fixture. Then carelessly shifting his glance to the
cleaning-cloth which Fanny held rather conspicuously in her hand, he
repeated the question he had already put to Mrs. Daniels.
The girl, tossing her head just a trifle, at once replied:
"O she was good-looking enough, if that is what you mean, for them as
likes a girl with cheeks as white as this cloth was afore I rubbed
the spoons with it. As for her eyes, they was blacker than her hair,
which was the blackest I ever see. She had no flesh at all, and as for
her figure--" Fanny glanced down on her own well developed person,
and gave a shrug inexpressibly suggestive.
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