e servant and ran into
the middle of the shop. The lamp, held high by Deborah over her head,
cast a bright circle of light on the floor, and in the middle of this
Sylvia saw her father breathing heavily. His hands were bound behind his
back in a painful way, his feet were tightly fastened, and his head
seemed to be attached to the floor. At least, when the body (as it
seemed from its stillness) suddenly writhed, it rolled to one side, but
the head remained almost motionless. The two women hung back, clutching
each other's hands, and were almost too horrified to move at the sight.
"Look! Look!" cried Sylvia, gasping, "the mouth!" Deborah looked and
gave a moan. Aaron's mouth was rigidly closed under a glittering jewel.
Deborah bent down, still moaning, so great did the horror of the thing
paralyse her speech, and saw the lights flash back from many diamonds:
she saw bluish gleams and then a red sparkle like the ray of the setting
sun. It was the opal serpent brooch, and Aaron's lips were fastened
together with the stout pin. On his mouth and across his agonised face
in which the one eye gleamed with terrific meaning the jewelled serpent
seemed to writhe.

"Oh, poor soul!" cried Deborah, falling on her knees with the lamp still
held above her head. "Sylvia see--"

The girl gasped again, and impulsively knelt also, trying with nerveless
fingers to unfasten the cruel pin which sealed the man's lips. He still
lived, for they heard him breathing and saw the gleaming eye: but even
as they looked the face grew black: the eye opened and closed
convulsively. Deborah set down the lamp and tried to raise the head. She
could not lift it from the floor. Then the bound feet swung in the air
and fell again with a dull thud. The eye remained wide open, staring in
a glassy, manner: the breathing had stopped: and the body was
motionless. "He's dead," said Deborah, leaping to her feet and catching
away the girl. "Help! Help!"

Her loud voice rang fiercely through the empty shop and echoed round and
round. But there came no answering cry. Not a sound could be heard in
the street. On the bare floor was the lamp shining on that dreadful
sight: the body with sealed lips, and the glittering jewel, and leaning
against the wall were the two women, Deborah staring at her dead master,
but with Sylvia's eyes pressed against her bosom so that she might not
witness the horror. And the stillness deepened weirdly every moment.

Sylvia tried to move