"I was so nipped and frozen with cold, that after closing the door, it took me some time to get my matchbox from my pocket and strike a light, for the passage was in intense darkness. Then the fear came over me that I might be mistaken for a burglar. So I called out at the top of my voice without receiving a reply. Thinking it very strange I made my way upstairs to the first floor, and entered a room in which there was no light. I called out again, and still received no reply. I must make the people hear, thought I, and I left the room and ascended the second flight of stairs. To cut a long story short, I went all over the house, and came to the conclusion that it was uninhabited. But I had observed in the room on the first floor signs of some person having been there, but whether recently or not I could not judge without further examination. So I groped back to that room, and by good luck happened to put my hand on a small piece of candle on a sideboard. This I lighted, and you will understand how startled I was at what I saw. "The furniture seemed to have been violently hurled in all directions, a table at the further end of the room was upset, and an object which I did not immediately distinguish lay beneath it. My first impulse was to fly from the house; there had evidently been a desperate fight in the room, and I might be implicated in what had taken place. Upon second thoughts I became reassured. I could account for every minute of my time during the day and night, up to the moment I had entered this strange house; and my curiosity led me to ascertain the nature of the proceeding which had brought about such confusion. That done I could proceed to the police station and report what I had seen. I will not attempt to describe my horror when I saw the body of a dead man beneath the table, and when, examining the mutilated features, I discovered that the murdered man was Louis Fordham. It makes me sick to think of it. I must have another drink." He tossed off a full glass of brandy and water, and rose and paced the room. I sat in silent agony, waiting for what was to come.