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ok the liberty of saying your lordship was here and perhaps you'd see him." "Bring him upstairs." It was in fact a man who knew Lord Coombe well enough to be aware that he need make no delay. "It was one of the worst, my lord," he said in answer to Coombe's first question. "We've had hard work--and the hardest of it was to hold things--people--back." He looked hag-ridden as he went on without any preparation. He was too tired for prefaces. "There was a lady who went out of here last night. She was with a gentleman. They were running to a friend's house to see things from the roof. They didn't get there. The gentleman is in the hospital delirious to-day. He doesn't know what happened. It's supposed something frightened her and she lost her wits and ran away. The gentleman tried to follow her but the lights were out and he couldn't find her in the dark streets. The running about and all the noises and crashes sent him rather wild perhaps. Trying to find a frightened woman in the midst of all that--and not finding her--" "What ghastly--damnable thing has happened?" Coombe asked with stiff lips. "It's both," the man said, "--it's both." He produced a package and opened it. There was a torn and stained piece of spangled violet gauze folded in it and on top was a little cardboard box which he opened also to show a ring with a big amethyst in it set with pearls. "Good God!" Coombe ejaculated, getting up from his chair hastily, "Oh! Good God!" "You know them?" the man asked. "Yes. I saw them last night--before she went out." "She ran the wrong way--she must have been crazy with fright. This--" the man hesitated a second here and pulled himself together, "--this is all that was found except--" "Good God!" said Lord Coombe again and he walked to and fro rapidly, trying to hold his body rigid. "The gentleman--his name is Delamore--went on looking--after the raid was over. Some one saw him running here and there as if he had gone crazy. He was found afterwards where he'd fainted--near a woman's hand with this ring on and the piece of scarf in it. He's a strong young chap but he'd fainted dead. He was carried to the hospital and to-day he's delirious." "There--was nothing more?" shuddered Coombe. "Nothing, my lord." * * * * * Out of unbounded space embodied nothingness had seemed to float across the world of living things, and into space the nothingness had dis
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