Criminals -- Fiction; Detective and mystery stories
"I _will_ tell you what I see!" I exclaimed, suddenly snatching the
wrist of her hand which lay upon the table, and holding it tightly.
Though almost completely concealed by the palms and plants, she strove
to shrink still further out of sight, as though the players, engrossed
in their games, would have spared time to notice her.
My eyes met hers yet again, but the expression in her eyes had now
completely changed. In place of the bold, impelling look I had always
seen there, was a fearful, hunted expression, as though she dreaded
what I was going to say.
"I see a room," I said in a low, intense tone, holding her wrist very
tightly still. "It is not a large room. It is a first-floor room, for I
see the exterior of the house and the two windows of the room. I see the
interior again. Several people are there—I cannot see them all clearly,
but two stand out distinctly. One is Gastrell, to whom I have this
evening been introduced; the other is you; ah, yes, I see you now more
clearly than before, and I see now another man—handsome, fair, about
twenty-eight or thirty—I can see his aura too—his aura within your
aura—he loves you desperately—and—ah, I see something lying on the
floor—a woman—she is dead—you—"
Her thin wrist suddenly turned cold; her eyes were slowly closing. Just
in time I sprang to my feet to save her from falling off her chair, for
she had fainted.
None of the players were aware of what had happened; all were too deeply
engrossed. Without attempting to restore my companion to
consciousness—for, in the face of what I had now learned practically
beyond doubt to be a fact, I had no wish to revive her—I left her lying
in her chair, stepped noiselessly along behind the mass of plants which
occupied one side of the room, emerged further away, and presently took
a vacant seat at a _chemin-de-fer_ table.
I glanced at my watch. It was nearly two o'clock. Thinking over what had
just happened, and wondering what my next move had better be, and what
Jack and Preston intended doing, I stared carelessly about the room.
At all the tables play was still in progress. At some complete silence
prevailed. From others there arose at intervals a buzz of conversation.
Behind some of the lucky players stood groups of interested watchers.
About the sideboard were clustered men and women refreshing themselves,
the majority smoking and laughing, though a few looked strangely solemn.
Among the latter I suddenly noticed a face I had seen before. It was the
demure, dark little woman who at Connie Stapleton's dinner party had all
the evening seemed so subdued. She was dressed quietly now, just as she
had been then, and she looked even more out of place in this crowd of
men and women gamblers, all of whom were exceedingly well-dressed, than
she had looked at that dinner party. "There is only one person I should
be more surprised at seeing here," I said mentally, "and that
is Dulcie."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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