The Lock and Key Library: Classic Mystery and Detective Stories: Old Time English
General
The Lock and Key Library: Classic Mystery and Detective Stories: Old Time English
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction; Ghost stories
In the second case, the object of vengeance was again an elderly
man. Of the ordinary family, all were absent at a country house,
except the master and a female servant. She was a woman of
courage, and blessed with the firmest nerves; so that she might
have been relied on for reporting accurately everything seen or
heard. But things took another course. The first warning that she
had of the murderers' presence was from their steps and voices
already in the hall. She heard her master run hastily into the
hall, crying out, "Lord Jesus!--Mary, Mary, save me!" The servant
resolved to give what aid she could, seized a large poker, and was
hurrying to his assistance, when she found that they had nailed up
the door of communication at the head of the stairs. What passed
after this she could not tell; for, when the impulse of intrepid
fidelity had been balked, and she found that her own safety was
provided for by means which made it impossible to aid a poor fellow
creature who had just invoked her name, the generous-hearted
creature was overcome by anguish of mind, and sank down on the
stair, where she lay, unconscious of all that succeeded, until she
found herself raised in the arms of a mob who had entered the
house. And how came they to have entered? In a way
characteristically dreadful. The night was starlit; the patrols
had perambulated the street without noticing anything suspicious,
when two foot passengers, who were following in their rear,
observed a dark-colored stream traversing the causeway. One of
them, at the same instant tracing the stream backward with his
eyes, observed that it flowed from under the door of Mr. Munzer,
and, dipping his finger in the trickling fluid, he held it up to
the lamplight, yelling out at the moment, "Why, this is blood!" It
was so, indeed, and it was yet warm. The other saw, heard, and
like an arrow flew after the horse patrol, then in the act of
turning the corner. One cry, full of meaning, was sufficient for
ears full of expectation. The horsemen pulled up, wheeled, and in
another moment reined up at Mr. Munzer's door. The crowd,
gathering like the drifting of snow, supplied implements which soon
forced the chains of the door and all other obstacles. But the
murderous party had escaped, and all traces of their persons had
vanished, as usual.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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