The Hampstead Mystery | Page 3

is any way I can get in. I may
have to break a window. Don't move from here."

Inspector Seldon went quickly round the side of the house, trying the
windows as he went. Towards the rear of the house, on the west side,
he came across a curious abutment of masonry jutting out squarely
from the wall. On the other side of this abutment, which gave the house
something of an unfinished appearance, were three French windows
close together. The blinds of these windows were closely drawn, but
the inspector's keen eye detected that one of the catches had been
broken, and there were marks of some instrument on the outside
woodwork.
"This looks like business," he muttered.
He pulled open the window, and walked into the room. The light of an
afternoon sun showed him that the apartment was a breakfast room,
well and solidly furnished in an old-fashioned way, with most of the
furniture in covers, as though the occupants of the house were away.
The daylight penetrated to the door at the far end of the room. It was
wide open, and revealed an empty passage. Inspector Seldon walked
into the passage. The drawn blinds made the passage seem quite dark
after the bright August sunshine outside, but he produced an electric
torch, and by its light he saw that the passage ran into the main hall.
His footsteps echoed in the empty house. The electric bell rang
continuously as Flack pressed it outside. Inspector Seldon walked along
the passage to the hall, flashing his torch into each room he passed. He
saw nothing, and went to the front door to admit Flack.
"That is enough of that noise, Flack," he said. "Come inside and help
me search the house above. It's empty on this floor so far as I've been
over it. If you find anything call me, and mind you do not touch
anything. Where did you say the library was?"
"I don't know, sir."
"Well, look about you on the ground floor while I go upstairs. Call me
if you hear anything."
Inspector Seldon mounted the stairs swiftly in order to continue his

search.
The staircase was a wide one, with broad shallow steps, thickly
carpeted, and a handsome carved mahogany baluster. The inspector,
flashing his torch as he ran up, saw a small electric light niche in the
wall before he reached the first landing. The catch of the light was
underneath, and Inspector Seldon turned it on. The light revealed that
the stairs swept round at that point to the landing of the first floor,
which was screened from view by heavy velvet hangings, partly caught
back by the bent arm of a marble figure of Diana, which faced
downstairs, with its other arm upraised and about to launch a hunting
spear. By this graceful device the curtains were drawn back sufficiently
to give access to the corridor on the first floor.
Inspector Seldon looked closely at the figure and the hangings.
Something strange about the former arrested his eye. It was standing
awry on its pedestal--was, indeed, almost toppling over. He looked up
and saw that one of the curtains supported by the arm hung loosely
from one of the curtain rings. It was as though some violent hand had
torn at the curtain in passing, almost dragging it from the pole and
precipitating the figure down the stairs. Immediately beyond the
landing, in the corridor, was a door on the right, flung wide open.
The inspector entered the room with the open door. It was a large room
forming part of the front of the house--a lofty large room, partly lighted
by the half-drawn blind of one of the windows. One side was lined with
bookshelves. In the corner of the room farthest from the door, was a
roll-top desk, which was open. In the centre of the room was a table,
and a huddled up figure was lying beside it, in a dark pool of blood
which had oozed into the carpet.
The inspector stepped quickly back to the landing.
"Flack!" he called, and unconsciously his voice dropped to a sharp
whisper in the presence of death. "Flack, come here."
When Flack reached the door of the library he saw his chief kneeling
beside the prostrate body of a dead man. The body lay clear of the table,

near the foot of an arm-chair. Instinctively Flack walked on tiptoe to
his chief.
"Is he dead, sir?" he asked.
"Cold and stiff," replied the inspector, in a hushed voice. "He's been
dead for hours."
Flack noted that the body was fully dressed, and he saw a dark stain
above the breast where the blood had welled forth and soaked the dead
man's clothes and formed a pool on the carpet beside him.