I think you ought to see it!"
The two men passed out of the tap-room together, and mounted the
stairs. On the landing Matthews paused a moment to glance out of
the window on to the bleak and inhospitable fen which was almost
obscured from view by a heavy drizzle of rain.
"Brr!" said Mr. Matthews, "what a horrible place!"
Looking up the staircase from the landing, they could see that
one of the panels of the door facing the head of the stairs had
been pressed out and lay on the ground. They passed up the stairs
and Matthews, putting one arm and his head through the opening,
found himself gazing into that selfsame ugly sitting room where
Desmond had talked with Nur-el-Din.
A couple of vigorous heaves burst the fastening of the door. The
sitting-room was in the wildest confusion. The doors of the
sideboard stood wide with its contents scattered
higgledy-piggledy on the carpet. A chest of drawers in the corner
had been ransacked, some of the drawers having been taken bodily
out and emptied on the floor.
The door leading to the inner room stood open and showed that a
similar search had been conducted there as well. The inner room
proved to be a bare white-washed place, very plainly furnished as
a bedroom. On the floor stood a small attache case, and beside it
a little heap of miscellaneous articles such as a woman would
take away with her for a weekend, a crepe-de-chine nightdress, a
dainty pair of bedroom slippers and some silver-mounted toilet
fittings.
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