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Page 10
"Hallo!" said Antony in amazement.
CHAPTER III
Two Men and a Body
Cayley looked round suddenly at the voice.
"Can I help?" said Antony politely.
"Something's happened," said Cayley. He was breathing quickly.
"I heard a shot--it sounded like a shot--I was in the library. A
loud bang--I didn't know what it was. And the door's locked."
He rattled the handle again, and shook it. "Open the door!" he
cried. "I say, Mark, what is it? Open the door!"
"But he must have locked the door on purpose," said Antony. "So
why should he open it just because you ask him to?"
Cayley looked at him in a bewildered way. Then he turned to the
door again. "We must break it in," he said, putting his shoulder
to it. "Help me."
"Isn't there a window?"
Cayley turned to him stupidly.
"Window? Window?"
"So much easier to break in a window," said Antony with a smile.
He looked very cool and collected, as he stood just inside the
hall, leaning on his stick, and thinking, no doubt, that a great
deal of fuss was being made about nothing. But then, he had not
heard the shot.
"Window--of course! What an idiot I am."
He pushed past Antony, and began running out into the drive.
Antony followed him. They ran along the front of the house, down
a path to the left, and then to the left again over the grass,
Cayley in front, the other close behind him. Suddenly Cayley
looked over his shoulder and pulled up short.
"Here," he said.
They had come to the windows of the locked room, French windows
which opened on to the lawns at the back of the house. But now
they were closed. Antony couldn't help feeling a thrill of
excitement as he followed Cayley's example, and put his face
close up to the glass. For the first time he wondered if there
really had been a revolver shot in this mysterious room. It had
all seemed so absurd and melodramatic from the other side of the
door. But if there had been one shot, why should there not be
two more?--at the careless fools who were pressing their noses
against the panes, and asking for it.
"My God, can you see it?" said Cayley in a shaking voice. "Down
there. Look!"
The next moment Antony saw it. A man was lying on the floor at
the far end of the room, his back towards them. A man? Or the
body of a man?
"Who is it?" said Antony.
"I don't know," the other whispered.
"Well, we'd better go and see." He considered the windows for a
moment. "I should think, if you put your weight into it, just
where they join, they'll give all right. Otherwise, we can kick
the glass in."
Without saying anything, Cayley put his weight into it. The
window gave, and they went into the room. Cayley walked quickly
to the body, and dropped on his knees by it. For the moment he
seemed to hesitate; then with an effort he put a hand on to its
shoulder and pulled it over.
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