Hardly knowing what I feared, or what I expected to find, I tore off one of the cushions and flung it behind me.

More cushions were revealed--but that was not all.
Escaping from the edge of one of them I saw a shiny tress of woman's hair.

I gave a gasp and pulled off more cushions, then I fell on my knees, struck down by the greatest horror which a man can feel.

Death lay before me--violent, uncalled-for death--and the victim was a woman.

But it was not that.