"
"I will endeavour to do so. In the first place she was
seized by your secretary, and stabbed him in order to escape.
This catastrophe I am inclined to regard as an unhappy accident,
for I am convinced that the lady had no intention of inflicting
so grievous an injury. An assassin does not come unarmed.
Horrified by what she had done she rushed wildly away from the
scene of the tragedy. Unfortunately for her she had lost her
glasses in the scuffle, and as she was extremely short-sighted
she was really helpless without them. She ran down a corridor,
which she imagined to be that by which she had come -- both were
lined with cocoanut matting -- and it was only when it was too
late that she understood that she had taken the wrong passage
and that her retreat was cut off behind her. What was she to do?
She could not go back. She could not remain where she was.
She must go on. She went on. She mounted a stair, pushed open
a door, and found herself in your room."
The old man sat with his mouth open staring wildly at Holmes.
Amazement and fear were stamped upon his expressive features.
Now, with an effort, he shrugged his shoulders and burst into
insincere laughter.
Pages:
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410