threatening to overcome him, he tied it round the head, for he could not bear to feel it staring at him. He saw he could never get the body into the launch. Indeed, he could not have borne to have it there. And he was afraid it would fall to bits. He had an appalling moment wondering what on earth he was to do with it. Then with his pocket knife he cut holes in the coat. He tied a rope through them and fixed it to the stern of the launch. He tried to wash his hands, shrinking from them. The perspiration stood out on his forehead when he was finished. He started slowly down the river, feeling he would go mad with that trailing after him.
Bob Lorrimer, Doctor Steele and Mac were standing near the barroom door when Dane plunged in as if he were followed by all the devils in hell.
“What is it, Barrington?” asked Bob anxiously, thinking at once of Valerie.
Dane did not see what he meant. “A corpse,” he shuddered, “at my boat. I ran into it coming down.” And he went on up the stairs to wash his hands.
Even before Doctor Steele and Bob had got the body into the hotel on a stretcher Dane was at the bar drinking whisky, and when he was called upon by the constable for evidence he was already reckless.
“What the hell do you want in the way of evidence?” he raged. “Isn’t it a corpse? I found it in the river, curse it! What more is there to say?”
“Look here, Mac, don’t let him get drunk,” said Bob aside.
Mac grinned. “You bloody fool, you can’t stop a man in that mood. He’s got stacks of stuff at home anyway. And he’s better drunk than seeing that ——— ——— corpse all night.”
