elf, then. I mean that she'll be
Suzanne--not a murderess of the Medicis. Take them off, John! They're
at the bottom of this."

"You mean----" John's voice was breathless, his lips trembling.

"I mean those hellish boots have changed Suzanne from a sweet and
lovely girl to--well, do as I tell you. I'll be back with gauze and
some things I need."

When Eric hurried back, there were three servants grouped at the
dining-room door. He spoke to them bruskly and they left, wide-eyed
and whispering. Eric closed the door.

While the wet leaves tapped against the windows and stars struggled
through the clouds, Eric worked, silently, expertly, grimly, by the
light of a flashlight held in John's unsteady hands and the light of
the flickering candles. The house lights were all snuffed out by the
storm.

"There," Eric gave a satisfied grunt. The brothers stood looking at
Suzanne, who seemed asleep. Her golden dress glimmered in the
candle-light and the pearls were slipping from her dark hair. The
Medici boots lay in a limp and bloody heap in a corner, where Eric had
flung them.

"When she awakes, I shouldn't tell her about any of this, if I were
you, John."

"There are things you haven't told me, Eric, aren't there? Things
about--the Medici boots?"

Eric looked steadily at his brother. "Yes, old fellow; and after I've told
you, those boots must be destroyed. We'll burn them before this night is
over. We mustn't move her now. We'll go out on the terrace--it's wet
there, but the air is fresh. Did you smell--something peculiar?"

For, as they passed the corner where the Medici boots lay slashed and
bloody, Eric could have sworn that there came to him a horrid odor,
fetid, hotly offensive--the odor of iniquity and ancient bloody death.

* * * * *

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