His eyes flew first to one door and then to another, as if
it were he who feared intrusion now.
"I beg your pardon for speaking on so painful a topic," I went on,
as soon as I saw he was ready to listen to me. "My excuse is that
I came upon a little thing that same night which I have not thought
of sufficient importance to mention to any one else, but which it
may interest you to hear about."
Here I took from a book I held, a piece of blotting-paper. It was
white on one side and blue on the other. The white side I had
thickly chalked, though this was not apparent. Laying down this
piece of blotting-paper, chalked side up, on the end of a large table
near which we were standing, I took out an envelope from my pocket,
and, shaking it gently to and fro, remarked:
"In an upper room of the Moore house - you remember the southwest
chamber, sir?"
Ali! didn't he! There was no misdoubting the quick emotion - the
shrinking and the alarm with which he heard this room mentioned.
"It was in that room that I found these."
Tipping up the envelope, I scattered over the face of the blotter
a few of the glistening particles I had collected from the place
mentioned.
He bent over them, astonished. Then, as was natural, brushed them
together in a heap with the tips of his fingers, and leaned to look
again, just as I breathed a heavy sigh which scattered them far and
wide.
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