cut to the bone and the blood was pouring out. In addition, the former
wound in front of the arm had been cut or torn about terribly, one of
the cuts seemed to jet out blood as if with each pulsation of the
heart. By the side of her father knelt Miss Trelawny, her white
nightdress stained with the blood in which she knelt. In the middle of
the room Sergeant Daw, in his shirt and trousers and stocking feet, was
putting fresh cartridges into his revolver in a dazed mechanical kind
of way. His eyes were red and heavy, and he seemed only half awake,
and less than half conscious of what was going on around him. Several
servants, bearing lights of various kinds, were clustered round the
doorway.

As I rose from my chair and came forward, Miss Trelawny raised her eyes
toward me. When she saw me she shrieked and started to her feet,
pointing towards me. Never shall I forget the strange picture she
made, with her white drapery all smeared with blood which, as she rose
from the pool, ran in streaks toward her bare feet. I believe that I
had only been asleep; that whatever influence had worked on Mr.
Trelawny and Nurse Kennedy--and in less degree on Sergeant Daw--had not
touched me. The respirator had been of some service, though it had not
kept off the tragedy whose dire evidences were before me. I can
understand now--I could understand even then--the fright, added to that
which had gone before, which my appearance must have evoked. I had
still on the respirator, which covered mouth and nose; my hair had been
tossed in my sleep. Coming suddenly forward, thus enwrapped and
dishevelled, in that horrified crowd, I must have had, in the strange
mixture of lights, an extraordinary and terrifying appearance. It was
well that I recognised all this in time to avert another catastrophe;
for the half-dazed, mechanically-acting Detective put in the cartridges
and had raised his revolver to shoot at me when I succeeded in
wrenching off the respirator and shouting to him to hold his hand. In
this also he acted mechanically; the red, half-awake eyes had not in
them even then the intention of conscious action. The danger, however,
was averted. The relief of the situation, strangely enough, came in a
simple fashion. Mrs. Grant, seeing that her young mistress had on only
her nightdress, had gone to fetch a dressing-gown, which she now threw
over her. This simple act brought us all back to the region of fact.
With a long breath, o