Three smaller
windows on the right-hand side filled the apartment with cold
winter sunshine. On the left was a large, deep fireplace, with
a massive, over-hanging oak mantelpiece. Beside the fireplace
was a heavy oaken chair with arms and cross-bars at the bottom.
In and out through the open woodwork was woven a crimson cord,
which was secured at each side to the crosspiece below.
In releasing the lady the cord had been slipped off her,
but the knots with which it had been secured still remained.
These details only struck our attention afterwards, for our
thoughts were entirely absorbed by the terrible object which
lay upon the tiger-skin hearthrug in front of the fire.
It was the body of a tall, well-made man, about forty years of
age. He lay upon his back, his face upturned, with his white
teeth grinning through his short black beard. His two clenched
hands were raised above his head, and a heavy blackthorn stick
lay across them. His dark, handsome, aquiline features were
convulsed into a spasm of vindictive hatred, which had set his
dead face in a terribly fiendish expression. He had evidently
been in his bed when the alarm had broken out, for he wore a
foppish embroidered night-shirt, and his bare feet projected from
his trousers.
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