"For a flash of time I was too startled to act, but in the same flash
I was convinced that the man had met his death from no accident, that
he had not died through any ordinary failure of the laws of nature.
The expression on his face was much too terrible to be
misinterpreted. It spoke as eloquently as words. It told me that
before the end had come he had watched his death approach and
threaten him.
"I was so sure he had been murdered that I instinctively looked on
the floor for the weapon, and, at the same moment, out of concern for
my own safety, quickly behind me; but the silence of the house
continued unbroken.
"I have seen a great number of dead men; I was on the Asiatic Station
during the Japanese-Chinese war. I was in Port Arthur after the
massacre. So a dead man, for the single reason that he is dead, does
not repel me, and, though I knew that there was no hope that this man
was alive, still, for decency's sake, I felt his pulse, and, while I
kept my ears alert for any sound from the floors above me, I pulled
open his shirt and placed my hand upon his heart. My fingers
instantly touched upon the opening of a wound, and as I withdrew them
I found them wet with blood.
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