e, the girl began to shiver, as though suddenly cold. She
turned around and glanced hurriedly back into the restaurant. At that
moment she met the steady, questioning scrutiny of Francis' eyes. She
stood as though transfixed. Then came the sound which every one talked
of for months afterwards, the sound which no one who heard it ever
forgot--the death cry of Victor Bidlake, followed a second afterwards by
a muffled report. A strain of frenzied surprise seemed mingled with the
horror. Afterwards, silence.

There was the sound of some commotion outside, the sound of hurried
footsteps and agitated voices. Then a terrible little procession
appeared. Something--it seemed to be a shapeless heap of clothes--was
carried in and laid upon the floor, in the little space between the
revolving doors and the inner entrance. Two blue-liveried attendants
kept back the horrified but curious crowd. Francis, vaguely recognised
as being somehow or other connected with the law, was one of the
few people allowed to remain whilst a doctor, fetched out from the
dancing-room, kneeled over the prostrate form. He felt that he knew
beforehand the horrible verdict which the latter whispered in his ear
after his brief examination.

"Quite dead! A ghastly business!"

Francis gazed at the hole in the shirt-front, disfigured also by a
scorching stain.

"A bullet?" he asked.

The doctor nodded.

"Fired within a foot of the poor fellow's heart," he whispered. "The
murderer wasn't taking any chances, whoever he was."

"Have the police been sent for?"

The head-porter stepped forward.

"There was a policeman within a few yards of the spot, sir," he replied.
"He's gone down to keep every one away from the place where we found the
body. We've telephoned to Scotland Yard for an inspector."

The doctor rose to his feet.

"Nothing more can be done," he pronounced. "Keep the people out of here
whilst I go and fetch my hat and coat. Afterwards, I'll take the body to
the mortuary when the ambulance arrives."

An attendant pushed his way through the crowd of people on the inner
side of the door.

"Miss Daisy Hyslop, young lady who was with Mr. Bidlake, has just
fainted in the ladies' room, sir," he announced. "Could you come?"

"I'll be there immediately," the doctor promised.

The rest of the proceedings followed a normal course. The police
arrived, took various notes, the ambulance followed a little later, the
body was removed, and the little