Joseph, without his hat, sped across the lawn, and gained the entrance
gate at the very moment that a gig was passing. By the light of a lamp,
Joseph saw that it contained Mr. Glenn, the surgeon, driven by his
servant. He had been on a late professional visit into the country.
Joseph shouted running before the horse in his excitement, and the man
pulled up.
"What's the matter, Joseph?" asked Mr. Glenn. "Any one ill?"
Somewhat curious to say, Mr. Glenn was the usual medical attendant of
the Dares. Joseph explained as well as he could. Mr. Anthony had been
found lying on the dining-room carpet, to all appearance dead. Mr. Glenn
descended.
"Anything up at your place?" asked a policeman, who had just come by, on
his beat.
"I should think there is," returned Joseph. "One of the gentlemen's
been found dead."
"Dead!" echoed the policeman. "Which of them is it?" he asked, after a
pause.
"Mr. Anthony."
"Why, I saw him turn in here about half-past eleven!" observed the
officer, "He is in a fit, perhaps."
"Why do you say that?" asked Joseph.
"Because he had been taking a drop too much. He could hardly walk.
Somebody brought him as far as the gate."
Mr. Glenn had hastened on. The policeman followed with Joseph. Followed,
possibly, to gratify his curiosity; possibly, because he thought his
services might be in some way required. When the two entered the
dining-room, Mr. Glenn was kneeling down to examine Anthony, and sounds
of distress came on their ears from a distance. They were caused by the
hysterics of Mrs. Dare.
"Is he dead, sir?" asked the policeman, in a low tone.
"He has been dead these two or three hours," was Mr. Glenn's reply.
But it was not a fit. It was not anything so innocent. Mr. Glenn found
that the cause of death was a stab in the side. Death, he believed, must
have been instantaneous: and the hemorrhage was chiefly internal. There
were very few stains on the clothes.
"What's this!" cried Mr. Glenn.
He was pulling at some large substance on which Anthony had fallen. It
proved to be a cloak. Cyril--and some others present--recognised it as
Herbert's cloak. Where was Herbert? In bed? Was it possible that he
could sleep through the noise and confusion that the house was in?
"Can nothing be done?" asked Mr. Dare of the surgeon.
Mr. Glenn shook his head. "He is stone dead, you see; dead, and nearly
cold. He must have been dead more than two hours. I should say nearer
three."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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