Suddenly I recollected I had a general pass-key on my ring which unlocked any door in the building. I nodded to Jones and to Mildred to stand aside, then, gently fitting the key, I suddenly pushed out the key which remained on the inside, turned the lock, and flung open the door. A terrible sight presented itself: Dr. Quint, hair on end, both mustaches pulled out, shirt, cuffs, and white waistcoat smeared with blood, knelt amid the general wreckage on the floor, in the act of ripping up the carpet. "Doctor!" I cried in a trembling voice. "What have you done to Professor Boomly?" He paused in his carpet ripping and looked around at us with a terrifying laugh. "I've settled _him_!" he said. "If you don't want to get all over dust you'd better keep out--" "Quint!" I cried. "Are you crazy?" "Pretty nearly. Let me alone--" "Where is Boomly!" I demanded in a tragic voice. "Where is your old friend, Billy Boomly? Where is he, Quint? And what does _that_ mean--that pool of blood on the floor? Whose is it?" "It's Bill's," said Quint, coolly ripping up another breadth of carpet and peering under it. "What!" I exclaimed. "Do you admit that?" "Certainly I admit it. I told him I'd terminate him if he meddled with my Silver Moon eggs." "You mean to say that you shed blood--the blood of your old friend--merely because he meddled with a miserable batch of butterfly's eggs?" I asked, astounded. "I certainly did shed his blood for just that particular thing! And listen; you're in my way--you're standing on a part of the carpet which I want to tear up. Do you mind moving?" Such cold-blooded calmness infuriated me. I sprang at Quint, seized him, and shouted to Jones to tie his hands behind him with the blood-soaked handkerchief which lay on the floor. At first, while Jones and I were engaged in the operation of securing the wretched man, Quint looked at us both as though surprised; then he grew angry and asked us what the devil we were about. "Those who shed blood must answer for it!" I said solemnly. "What? What's the matter with you?" he demanded in a rage. "Shed blood? What if I did? What's that to you? Untie this handkerchief, you unmentionable idiot!" I looked at Jones: "His mind totters," I said hoarsely. "What's that!" cried Quint, struggling to get off the chair whither I had pushed him: but with my handkerchief we tied his ankles to the rung of the chair, heedless of his attempts to kick us, and sprang back out of range. "Now," I said, "what have you done with the poor victim of your fury? Where is he? Where is all that remains of Professor Boomly?" "Boomly? I don't know where he is. How the devil should I know?" "Don't lie," I said solemnly. "Lie! See here, Smith, when I get out of this chair I'll settle you, too--" "Quint! There is another and more terrible chair which awaits such criminals as you!" "You old fluff!" he shouted. "I'll knock your head off, too. Do you understand? I'll attend to you as I attended to Boomly--"