n the snow. And
now the foremost reach the window. Randolph, from behind, calls to them
to enter. They cry back that they cannot, the window being closed. At
this reply he seems to be overcome by surprise, by terror. Some one
hears him murmur the words, "My God, what can have happened now?" His
horror is increased when one of the lads bears to him a revolting
trophy, which has been found just outside the window; it is the front
phalanges of three fingers of a human hand. Again he utters the
agonised moan, "My God!" and then, mastering his agitation, makes for
the window; he finds that the catch of the sash has been roughly
wrenched off, and that the sash can be opened by merely pushing it up:
does so, and enters. The room is in darkness: on the floor under the
window is found the insensible body of the woman Cibras. She is alive,
but has fainted. Her right fingers are closed round the handle of a
large bowie-knife, which is covered with blood; parts of the left are
missing. All the jewelry has been stolen from the room. Lord Pharanx
lies on the bed, stabbed through the bedclothes to the heart. Later on
a bullet is also found imbedded in his brain. I should explain that a
trenchant edge, running along the bottom of the sash, was the obvious
means by which the fingers of Cibras had been cut off. This had been
placed there a few days before by the workman I spoke of. Several
secret springs had been placed on the inner side of the lower
horizontal piece of the window-frame, by pressing any one of which the
sash was lowered; so that no one, ignorant of the secret, could pass
out from within, without resting the hand on one of these springs, and
so bringing down the armed sash suddenly on the underlying hand.

'There was, of course, a trial. The poor culprit, in mortal terror of
death, shrieked out a confession of the murder just as the jury had
returned from their brief consultation, and before they had time to
pronounce their verdict of "guilty." But she denied shooting Lord
Pharanx, and she denied stealing the jewels; and indeed no pistol and
no jewels were found on her, or anywhere in the room. So that many
points remain mysterious. What part did the burglars play in the
tragedy? Were they in collusion with Cibras? Had the strange behaviour
of at least one of the inmates of Orven Hall no hidden significance?
The wildest guesses were made throughout the country; theories
propounded. But no theory explained _all_ the points