CHAPTER III
the disappearance of the corpse
With hesitating fingers he turned on the electric light, and then fell back nearly into the arms of Harding.
"My God!" he said. "It's gone! There's nothing on the floor!"
With wild, staring eyes he looked at Harding.
Harding returned his glance curiously. The conviction gradually growing in his mind was that Reggie had gone mad.
"But I saw it, I saw it," said the other, detecting the suspicion. "I saw it, and I touched it. It was almost cold. It was lying there by the sofa—between the sofa and the fire. The head was on the ground. It seemed as though he might have fallen off the sofa. No, George, no. This is no hallucination. The body was there, as I told you, and it is not there now. Someone has taken it away!"
"Thank Heaven," gasped Harding, "he may not be dead!"
"Oh, yes," replied Reggie, firmly, "he is dead. Only the body has been taken away. That makes the mystery worse, more terrible."
"Come with me," said the lawyer, "this may be
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