there watching your wild, countenance and reading its
meaning, as with an eager, hunted look you went to the outer door,
opened it, and stood looking down. Then carefully closing both, you
went to the window to peer out furtively from the side of the blind, as
if to make out whether by any possibility anyone could have overlooked
the scene.

"I knew that you had some plan in mind by your actions, and it rapidly
dawned on me what it was, as, like one suffering from nightmare I stood
watching, with the cold sweat gathering on my face, as I saw you go
toward the other side of the fireplace, come into sight again and take a
chair in the same direction.

"I soon divined, though, that it was to hold open the door, and now came
the horror of the scene."

Stratton uttered a low groan as he sat there with his face buried in his
hands, and Brettison went on:

"It was all clear to me now. You were seeking for a way out of your
terrible dilemma by concealing the body, and I looked on, speechless
with horror, as I saw you stoop to seize the arms, droop forward, and
fall across the chest."

"I was faint from my hurt," said Stratton, almost in a whisper.

"But you rose directly, and I saw you drag the body toward the door of
your bathroom and, as if drawn there to know the rest, I came back here
and stood listening by that loose panel, where the scene stood out as
vividly before me as if I were in the same room."

Stratton groaned, while, excited by his narration, Brettison went on:

"You were evidently faint still, and weak, for I heard you stop again
and again, only to resume the dreadful task of dragging the body along
the floor, till at last you stood within a few feet of me, and I could
hear your laboured breathing for a few minutes, followed by a sound that
I knew to be the throwing back of the bath lid; and then followed what
you know--that horrible struggle with a weight with which you were not
fit to cope. A minute later the lid was closed and you shut and locked
the bath-closet door, while I sat down, faint and exhausted, to try and
think out what I should do.

"I must have sat there for a long time, for I was roused by the sound of
voices in your room, and heard the scene that took place with the
admiral. I knew that you fainted, and that Guest tried the door which
you had locked; and I shuddered as I thought of what that place
contained, and how easily the discovery might follow.

"By this time I had made