When Elaine reached the other room, she found Mary there with the
Chinese servant who was giving her a glass of water. At the sight
of her, the servant paused, then withdrew into another room
further back. Mary, now apparently recovering from her faintness,
smiled wanly at Elaine.
"It's all right," she murmured. "He is a Chinese prince who
thought we were callers."
At the reassuring nod of Mary toward the front room, Elaine was
overcome.
"I--I killed him!" she managed to gasp.
"What?" cried Mary, starting up and trembling violently. "You
killed him?"
"Yes," sobbed Elaine, "he came at me--I had the knife--I struck at
him--"
The two girls ran into the other room. There Mary looked at the
motionless body on the floor and recoiled, horrified.
Elaine noticing some spots on her hands and seeing that they were
stained by the blood of Long Sin, wiped the spots off on her
hankerchief, dropping it on the floor.
"Ugh!" exclaimed a guttural voice behind them.
It was the servant who had come in. Even his ordinarily impassive
Oriental face could not conceal the horror and fear at the sight
of his master lying on the floor in a pool of gore. Elaine was now
more frightened than ever, if that were possible.
"You--kill him--with knife?" insinuated the Chinese.
Elaine was dumb. The servant did not wait for an answer, but
hastily opened the hall door.
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