The Strange Schemes of Randolph MasonPost, Melville Davisson
General
The Strange Schemes of Randolph Mason
Post, Melville Davisson
American fiction -- 19th century; Detective and mystery stories, American; Legal stories, American
"Oh! Dick, Dick," she sobbed, "I do love you so! I can't live without
you! Not another hour Dick! I do want you so much, so much, Dick!" The
man shifted his right arm quickly, slipped a great Mexican knife out of
his sleeve, and passed his fingers slowly up the woman's side until he
felt the heart beat under his hand, then he raised the knife, gripped
the handle tight, and drove the keen blade into the woman's bosom. The
hot blood gushed out over his arm, and down on his leg. The body, warm
and limp, slipped down in his arms. The man got up, pulled out the
knife, and thrust it into a sheath at his belt, unbuttoned the dress,
and slipped it off of the body. As he did this a bundle of papers
dropped upon the floor; these he glanced at hastily and put into his
pocket. Then he took the dead woman up in his arms, went out into the
hall, and started to go up the stairway. The body was relaxed and heavy,
and for that reason difficult to carry. He doubled it up into an awful
heap, with the knees against the chin, and walked slowly and heavily up
the stairs and out into the bath-room. There he laid the corpse down
on the tiled floor. Then he opened the window, closed the shutters, and
lighted the gas. The bath-room was small and contained an ordinary steel
tub, porcelain-lined, standing near the window and raised about six
inches above the floor. The sailor went over to the tub, pried up the
metal rim of the outlet with his knife, removed it, and fitted into its
place a porcelain disk which he took from his pocket; to this disk
was attached a long platinum wire, the end of which he fastened on the
outside of the tub. After he had done this he went back to the body,
stripped off its clothing, put it down in the tub and began to dismember
it with the great Mexican knife. The blade was strong and sharp as a
razor. The man worked rapidly and with the greatest care.
When he had finally cut the body into as small pieces as possible, he
replaced the knife in its sheath, washed his hands, and went out of the
bath-room and down stairs to the lower hall. The sailor seemed perfectly
familiar with the house. By a side door he passed into the cellar. There
he lighted the gas, opened one of the wine cases, and, taking up all
the bottles that he could conveniently carry, returned to the bath-room.
There he poured the contents into the tub on the dismembered body, and
then returned to the cellar with the empty bottles, which he replaced in
the wine cases. This he continued to do until all the cases but one were
emptied and the bath tub was more than half full of liquid. This liquid
was sulphuric acid.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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