The Argosy — page 262: what you’re looking at

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

A Dark Deed. | 241 deigning to notice me walked straight into the room with my land- lady at their heels. After a hurried glance round, the foremost policeman exclaimed exultantly : ‘‘ There she is,” and at the same time pointed to a dark corner where poor Dummy sat just as we had put her down overnight. I must say she presented a ghastly appearance ; one calculated to inspire horror in the mind of anyone outside the profession, and consequently not hardened to such sights. There in the gloom, wrapped about with a tattered piece of drapery sat Dummy, looking for all the world like the unfortunate victim of some foul crime. Her head, which was covered by the shawl, had dropped on to her breast, and one or two straggling whisps of hair peeped out through the folds on her shoulders. For the first time in my life I really admired my old lay-figure. Her long training in tragedy seemed to have at last borne fruit, and for once she appeared to have really thrown herself into the spirit of the situation. ‘What is she doing here?” said the sergeant, turning to me. Nothing,” said I. “It is only my lay-figure, as I told the cabman last night.” , But the constables, seeming to have no clearer notion than the cabby of what a lay-figure might be, I walked up to it and pulled the drapery aside, when down fell the papier-maché head on to the floor. There was a chorus of ejaculations from the men and a slight scream from my landlady, and I proceeded to explain that the wretched object in the corner was a model I occasionally used to paint from, and that the previous night I had brought her back from the house of an artist friend who had borrowed her for a time. The mystery being thus cleared up, all present, with the exception of the cabby, thoroughly appreciated the joke. The drollery of the occurrence, however, did not seem quite so apparent to him. His sense of humour was possibly somewhat blunted by the consciousness that he had made himself look rather foolish. But when I suggested that they should all three adjourn to the “Castle,” just round the corner, and drink something to my health and the speedy recovery of the unfortunate victim, even cabby sided with the rest in considering that, on the whole, it was a satisfactory and pleasant termination to what had appeared to him the night before a very awful and suspicious tragedy. CoOnniclooolks (CO) im