England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Married people -- Fiction; Mystery fiction
“I got a warrant on the twenty-sixth of October to go to the
country-house near Edinburgh called Gleninch. I took with me Robert
Lorrie, assistant to the Fiscal. We first examined the room in which
Mrs. Eustace Macallan had died. On the bed, and on a movable table which
was attached to it, we found books and writing materials, and a paper
containing some unfinished verses in manuscript, afterward identified as
being in the handwriting of the deceased. We inclosed these articles in
paper, and sealed them up.
“We next opened an Indian cabinet in the bedroom. Here we found many
more verses on many more sheets of paper in the same hand-writing. We
also discovered, first some letters, and next a crumpled piece of paper
thrown aside in a corner of one of the shelves. On closer examination, a
chemist’s printed label was discovered on this morsel of paper. We also
found in the folds of it a few scattered grains of some white powder.
The paper and the letters were carefully inclosed, and sealed up as
before.
“Further investigation of the room revealed nothing which could throw
any light on the purpose of our inquiry. We examined the clothes,
jewelry, and books of the deceased. These we left under lock and key. We
also found her dressing-case, which we protected by seals, and took away
with us to the Fiscal’s office, along with all the other articles that
we had discovered in the room.
“The next day we continued our examination in the house, having received
in the interval fresh instructions from the Fiscal. We began our work in
the bedroom communicating with the room in which Mrs. Macallan had
died. It had been kept locked since the death. Finding nothing of any
importance here, we went next to another room on the same floor, in
which we were informed the prisoner was then lying ill in bed.
“His illness was described to us as a nervous complaint, caused by the
death of his wife, and by the proceedings which had followed it. He was
reported to be quite incapable of exerting himself, and quite unfit
to see strangers. We insisted nevertheless (in deference to our
instructions) on obtaining admission to his room. He made no reply
when we inquired whether he had or had not removed anything from the
sleeping-room next to his late wife’s, which he usually occupied, to the
sleeping-room in which he now lay. All he did was to close his eyes, as
if he were too feeble to speak to us or to notice us. Without further
disturbing him, we began to examine the room and the different objects
in it.
“While we were so employed, we were interrupted by a strange sound. We
likened it to the rumbling of wheels in the corridor outside.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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