I feared to follow the thought further; but read on, conscious that the eyes of both Miss Trelawny and the Detective were fixed on me.
"MY DEAR DAUGHTER, I want you to take this letter as an instruction--absolute and imperative, and admitting of no deviation whatever--in case anything untoward or unexpected by you or by others should happen to me.

If I should be suddenly and mysteriously stricken down--either by sickness, accident or attack--you must follow these directions implicitly.

If I am not already in my bedroom when you are made cognisant of my state, I am to be brought there as quickly as possible.

Even should I be dead, my body is to be brought there.
Thenceforth, until I am either conscious and able to give instructions on my own account, or buried, I am never to be left alone--not for a single instant.

From nightfall to sunrise at least two persons must remain in the room.