"I left him, monsieur, thinking of money. But I did not know how bad his
thoughts were. I returned home, and I told Madame Holymead I would go to
the theatre that night. I left the house at eight o'clock, and after
walking along Piccadilly and Regent Street took the train to Hampstead.
Then I walked up to the house of Sir Horace so as not to be too early.
The gate was open and I thought that strange, but I had no thought of
murder. As I walked up the garden I heard a shot--two shots--and then a
cry, and the sound of something falling on the floor. The door of the
house was open, and the light was burning in the hall. Upstairs I heard
the noise of footsteps--quick footsteps--and then I heard them coming
down the staircase. I was afraid, and I hid myself behind the curtains in
the hall. The footsteps came down, and nearer and nearer, and when they
passed me I looked out to see. Monsieur, it was Pierre. I called to him
softly, 'Pierre, Pierre!' He looked round, and his face, it was so
different--so dreadful. He did not know my voice, and he ran away from me
with a cry.
"Monsieur, my heart is a brave one. I have not what you call nerves, but
when I knew I was alone in the great house with I knew not what, a great
fear clutched me. I stood still in the hall with my eyes fixed on the
stairs above. At first all was silent, then I heard a dreadful sound--a
groan. I wanted to run away then, monsieur, but the good God commanded me
to go up and into the room, where a fellow creature needed me. I went
upstairs, and along to the door of a room which was half open. I pushed
it wide open and went in.
"_Mon Dieu!_ the judge was alone there, dying. Pierre had shot him. He
lay along the floor, gasping, groaning, and the blood dripping from his
breast. When I saw this I ran forward and took his poor head on my knee,
and tried to stop the blood with my handkerchief. But as I did this the
judge groaned once more. He knew me not, though I called him by name. In
terrible agony he writhed his head off my breast. His hand clutched at
the hole in his breast, closing on my handkerchief. And so he died.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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