" He walked to the French window and threw it
open. "There are no signs here, but the ground is iron hard,
and one would not expect them. I see that these candles on the
mantelpiece have been lighted."
"Yes; it was by their light and that of the lady's bedroom
candle that the burglars saw their way about."
"And what did they take?"
"Well, they did not take much -- only half-a-dozen articles of
plate off the sideboard. Lady Brackenstall thinks that they
were themselves so disturbed by the death of Sir Eustace that
they did not ransack the house as they would otherwise have done."
"No doubt that is true. And yet they drank some wine, I understand."
"To steady their own nerves."
"Exactly. These three glasses upon the sideboard have been
untouched, I suppose?"
"Yes; and the bottle stands as they left it."
"Let us look at it. Halloa! halloa! what is this?"
The three glasses were grouped together, all of them tinged
with wine, and one of them containing some dregs of bees-wing.
The bottle stood near them, two-thirds full, and beside it lay
a long, deeply-stained cork. Its appearance and the dust upon
the bottle showed that it was no common vintage which the
murderers had enjoyed.
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