just within the door they both stopped, aghast.

Sitting bolt upright in bed was Lord Lashmore, his face a dingy grey
and his open eyes, though filming over, yet faintly alight with a
stark horror ... dead. An electric torch was still gripped in his left
hand.

Bending over someone who lay upon the carpet near the bedside they
perceived Sir Elwin Groves. He looked up. Some little of his usual
self-possession had fled.

"Ah, Cairn!" he jerked. "We've both come too late."

The prostrate figure was that of Lady Lashmore, a loose kimono worn
over her night-robe. She was white and still and the physician had
been engaged in bathing a huge bruise upon her temple.

"She'll be all right," said Sir Elwin; "she has sustained a tremendous
blow, as you see. But Lord Lashmore--"

Dr. Cairn stepped closer to the dead man.

"Heart," he said. "He died of sheer horror."

He turned to Chambers, who stood in the open doorway behind him.

"The dressing-room door is open," he said. "I had advised Lord
Lashmore to lock it."

"Yes, sir; his lordship meant to, sir. But we found that the lock had
been broken. It was to have been replaced to-morrow."

Dr. Cairn turned to his son.

"You hear?" he said. "No doubt you have some idea respecting which of
the visitors to this unhappy house took the trouble to break that
lock? It was to have been replaced to-morrow; hence the tragedy of
to-night." He addressed Chambers again. "Why did the servants leave
the house to-night?"

The man was shaking pitifully.

"It was the laughter, sir! the laughter! I can never forget it! I was
sleeping in an adjoining room and I had the key of his lordship's door
in case of need. But when I heard his lordship cry out--quick and
loud, sir--like a man that's been stabbed--I jumped up to come to him.
Then, as I was turning the doorknob--of my room, sir--someone,
something, began to _laugh_! It was in here; it was in here,
gentlemen! It wasn't--her ladyship; it wasn't like _any_ woman. I
can't describe it; but it woke up every soul in the house."

"When you came in?"

"I daren't come in, sir! I ran downstairs and called up Sir Elwin
Groves. Before he came, all the rest of the household huddled on their
clothes and went away--"

"It was I who found him," interrupted Sir Elwin--"as you see him now;
with Lady Lashmore where she lies. I have 'phoned for nurses."

"Ah!" said Dr. Cairn; "I shall come back, Groves, but I have a small
matter to attend to."