Gratia's Trials — page 139: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

i300 “GRATIA’S TRIALS. gates through which he passed to the ones world. phisd is the corpse of a murdered man |” Alberta’s shrill shriek of terror echoed through the house, but Robert only pressed closer to the doctor's side, ‘«Tell me what has led you to suspect this thing?” he asked, in an eager, stifled voice. ‘¢ Look here.” Dr. Hayley bent over the corpse and pointed to a tiny spot of deep, sullen red—a pin-prick, as it were—upon the breast. ‘“Touch that, he said, and you will feel that there is some metallic substance below it—probably a very small slender dag- ger. This man has been stabbed to the heart !” But Robert started back. ‘Tt is horrible!” he muttered. ‘‘ How can you treat it so lightly ?” The doctor shrugged his shoulders. ‘‘Tt is a part of my profession,” he said. ‘‘I have seen such a case as this once before, in an instance where an Itahan wo- man murdered her husband in a paroxysm of jealousy. She used a long, slender darning needle, and if it hadn’t been for a single link of evidence, we never should have suspected but that the man died a natural death. Your uncle has been foully murdered, Mr. Falconer.” ‘“But by whom?” ‘‘Tt is your business to ascertain whom,” said Dr. Hayley, with the quiet self possession with which medical men always seem to regard the grim presence of death. ‘‘ The police must be notified at once. ‘The coroner must be summoned to attend.” : _ **Ts that necessary?” Mr, Falconer asked, seeming rather to dislike the idea.” : - “Not pleasant, but necessary,” Dr. Hayley answered. ‘‘ In the meantime, as I can be of no further use, 1 may as well re- turn home.” Comicbooks.com