And
now the foremost reach the window. Randolph, from behind, calls to them
to enter. They cry back that they cannot, the window being closed. At
this reply he seems to be overcome by surprise, by terror. Some one
hears him murmur the words, "My God, what can have happened now?" His
horror is increased when one of the lads bears to him a revolting
trophy, which has been found just outside the window; it is the front
phalanges of three fingers of a human hand. Again he utters the
agonised moan, "My God!" and then, mastering his agitation, makes for
the window; he finds that the catch of the sash has been roughly
wrenched off, and that the sash can be opened by merely pushing it up:
does so, and enters. The room is in darkness: on the floor under the
window is found the insensible body of the woman Cibras. She is alive,
but has fainted. Her right fingers are closed round the handle of a
large bowie-knife, which is covered with blood; parts of the left are
missing. All the jewelry has been stolen from the room. Lord Pharanx
lies on the bed, stabbed through the bedclothes to the heart. Later on
a bullet is also found imbedded in his brain. I should explain that a
trenchant edge, running along the bottom of the sash, was the obvious
means by which the fingers of Cibras had been cut off.
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