The House of Souls
street indeed, and I was glad to return to the bustle and the noise. Would you like to see my purchase?'
Austin said nothing, but nodded his head slightly; he still looked white and sick. Villiers pulled out a drawer in the bamboo table, and showed Austin a long coil of cord, hard and new; and at one end was a running noose.
'It is the best hempen cord,' said Villiers, 'just as it used to be made for the old trade, the man told me. Not an inch of jute from end to end.'
Austin set his teeth hard, and stared at Villiers, growing whiter as he looked.
'You would not do it,' he murmured at last. 'You would not have blood on your hands. My God!' he exclaimed, with sudden vehemence, 'you cannot mean this, Villiers, that you will make yourself a hangman?'
'No. I shall offer a choice, and leave Helen Vaughan alone with this cord in a locked room for fifteen minutes. If when we go in it is not done, I shall call the nearest policeman. That is all.'
'I must go now. I cannot stay here any longer; I cannot bear this. Good-night.'
'Good-night, Austin.'
The door shut, but in a moment it was opened again, and Austin stood, white and ghastly, in the entrance.
'I was forgetting,' he said, 'that I too have something to tell. I have received a letter from Dr. Harding of Buenos Ayres. He says that he attended Meyrick for three weeks before his death.'
'And does he say what carried him off in the prime of life? It was not fever?'
'No, it was not fever. According to the doctor, it
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