Two or three persons came into the room--Parks and the other servants, I suppose; I heard Godfrey's voice giving orders; and finally someone held a glass to my lips and commanded me to drink. I did so mechanically; coughed, spluttered, was conscious of a grateful warmth, and drank eagerly again. And then I saw Godfrey standing over me. "Feel better?" he asked. I nodded. "I don't wonder it knocked you out," he went on. "I'm feeling shaky myself. I had them call Vantine's physician--but he can't do anything." "He's dead, then?" I murmured, my eyes on that dark and crumpled object which had been Philip Vantine. "Yes--just like the other." Then I remembered, and I caught his arm and drew him down to me. "Godfrey," I whispered, "whose voice was it--or did I dream it --something about a woman?" "You didn't dream it--it was Rogers--he's almost hysterical. We'll get the story, as soon as he quiets down." Someone called him from the door, and he turned away, leaving me staring blankly at nothing. So there had been a woman in Vantine's life! Perhaps that was why he had never married. What ugly skeleton was to be dragged from its closet? But if a woman killed Vantine, the same woman also killed d'Aurelle. Where was her hiding-place? From what ambush did she strike? I glanced about the room, as a tremor of horror seized me. I arose, shaking, from the chair and groped my way toward the door. Godfrey heard me coming, swung around, and, with one glance at my face, came to me and caught me by the arms. "What is it, Lester?" he asked. "I can't stand it here," I gasped. "It's too horrible!" "Don't think about it. Come out here and have another drink." He led me into the hall, and a second glass of brandy gave me back something of my self-control. I was ashamed of my weakness, but when I glanced at Godfrey, I saw how white his face was. "Better take a drink yourself," I said. I heard the decanter rattle on the glass. "I don't know when I have been so shaken," he said, setting the glass down empty. "It was so gruesome--so unexpected--and then Rogers carrying on like a madman. Ah, here's the doctor," he added, as the front door opened and Parks showed a man in. I knew Dr. Hughes, of course, returned his nod, and followed him and Godfrey into the ante-room. But I had not yet sufficiently recovered to do more than sit and stare at him as he knelt beside the body and assured himself that life had fled. Then I heard Godfrey telling him all we knew, while Hughes listened with incredulous face. "But it's absurd, you know!" he protested, when Godfrey had finished. "Things like this don't happen here in New York. In Florence, perhaps, in the Middle Ages; but not here in the twentieth century!" "I can scarcely believe my own senses," Godfrey agreed. "But I saw the Frenchman lying here this afternoon; and now here's Vantine." "On the same spot?" "As nearly as I can tell." "And killed in the same way?" "Killed in precisely the same way."