Whose hand was it had thrown that cord about the throat and
drawn it tight? What motive lay behind? Fearsome and compelling must
the motive be to drive a man to such a crime! Would Simmonds be able
to divine that motive, to build the case up bit by bit until the
murderer was found? Would Godfrey?
I turned my head to look at him. He was lying back in his chair, his
eyes closed, apparently lost in thought, and for long minutes there
was no movement in the room.
At last the doctor returned, looking more cheerful than when he had
left the room. He had given Miss Vaughan an opiate and she was
sleeping calmly; the nervous trembling had subsided and he hoped that
when she waked she would be much better. The danger was that brain
fever might develop; she had evidently suffered a very severe shock.
"Yes," said Godfrey, "she discovered her father strangled in the chair
yonder."
"I saw the body when I came in," the doctor remarked, imperturbably.
"So it's her father, is it?"
"Yes."
"And strangled, you say?"
Godfrey answered with a gesture, and the doctor walked over to the
body, glanced at the neck, then disengaged one of the tightly clenched
hands from the chair-arm, raised it and let it fall.
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