The Circular Study

taken place in this room, rose to his feet, and, with a dazed air as unlike his former violent expressio

ss away. We first want to hear how yo

one showed himself totally unmoved by it, and was pass

by sliding off like this? Don't you

ut an odd sound between a moan and a shriek. He had caught sight of the men who were seeking to detain him, and his haggard look and cringing form showed that he realized at last the terrors o

sh of passions in the presence of violence and death-illumined his wandering eye and distorted his mouth; and, seeking n

d till the last faint sounds of this diabolical mirth had died away in the high recesses of the space above. Then, fixing the glitt

this man? You were in the ho

while with his one disengaged hand (for the other was held to his side

tation to be given to this

o enact again and with increased vivacity first the killing of and then the mourning for his master, which but a few moments before had made so suggestive an impression upon them. This do

. "Can't you speak?" he s

gloating smile, which Mr. Gryce

I am going up to the room where you saw him first. He is too nearly

signs by which this one remaining occupant of the house could be directly associated with the crime which had taken place within it. Thereupon Mr. Gryce gr

d haunting expression told such a story of suffering and determination, when there came from the dim recesses above his

ber Ev

roof, and, sure enough, when Mr. Gryce looked up he saw, swinging in a cage strung up nearly to the top of one of the windows I have mentioned, an English starling, w

ber Ev

o obtain a better view of this bird, when, without warning, the white light, which since his last contact with the electrical apparatus had spread itself through the

any attempt to solve, he left the vicinity of the table, and was about to leave the room when he heard

not dangerous, you know, but anxious; as if he had f

Every movement he makes is of interest. Unconsciously he may be giving us invalu

e man on the floor beneath, whose ears were forever closed? It might be a matter of little consequence, and it might be one involving the very secret of this tragedy. But whether important or not, he could pay no heed to it at

had returned the respectful immobility of the trained servant, handed over the articles he had brought, and then noiselessly, and with the air of one who had p

this state by the tragedy which has just taken place here, or is his present insane condition its precursor and cause?" Mr. Gryce might have found some answer to this question in his own mind if, at that moment, the

rtant person, was at hand, and th