A greater strength than hers had held him in the death-chair, and a greater strength than hers had choked life from the Inspector of Police! He drew slowly out of the room, closing the door noiselessly behind him.

He found that the front door was as Kedsty had left it, unlocked.
Close to that door he stood for a space, scarcely allowing himself to breathe.

He listened, but no sound came down the dimly illumined stairway.
A new thing was pressing upon him now.

It rode over the shock of tragedy, over the first-roused instincts of the man-hunter, overwhelming him with the realization of a horror such as had never confronted him before.

It gripped him more fiercely than the mere killing of Kedsty.