Where is Madame
de Staemer?"
Pedro uttered some exclamation in Spanish and stood, pale-faced,
swaying before me, a dishevelled figure in a dressing gown. And now in
the background Mrs. Fisher appeared. One frightened glance she cast in
my direction, and would have hurried across the hall but I intercepted
her.
"Where are you going, Mrs. Fisher?" I demanded. "What has happened
here?"
"To Madame, to Madame," she sobbed, pointing toward the corridor which
communicated with Madame de Staemer's bedchamber.
I heard a frightened cry proceeding from that direction, and recognized
the voice of Nita, the girl who acted as Madame's maid. Then I heard
Val Beverley.
"Go and fetch Mrs. Fisher, Nita, at once--and try to behave yourself. I
have trouble enough."
I entered the corridor and pulled up short. Val Beverley, fully
dressed, was kneeling beside Madame de Staemer, who wore a kimono over
her night-robe, and who lay huddled on the floor immediately outside
the door of her room!
"Oh, Mr. Knox!" cried the girl, pitifully, and raised frightened eyes
to me. "For God's sake, what has happened?"
Nita, the Spanish girl, who was sobbing hysterically, ran along to join
Mrs.
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