LADY MOLLY OF SCOTLAND YARD
In an instant the two maids ran upstairs, straight to Mrs. Dunstan's room, the door of which stood wide open.
The first thing Mary and Jane were conscious of was a terrific smell of gas, then of Miss Cruikshank, with eyes dilated with horror, staring at the bed in front of her, whereon lay Mrs. Dunstan, with one end of a piece of indiarubber piping still resting in her mouth, her jaw having dropped in death. The other end of that piece of piping was attached to the burner of a gas-bracket on the wall close by.
Every window in the room was fastened and the curtains drawn. The whole room reeked of gas.
Mrs. Dunstan had been asphyxiated by its fumes.
4
A year went by after the discovery of the mysterious tragedy, and I can assure you that our fellows at the Yard had one of the toughest jobs in connection with the case that ever fell to their lot. Just think of all the contradictions which met them at every turn.
Firstly, the disappearance of Miss Violet.
No sooner had the women in the Dunstan household roused themselves sufficiently from their horror at the terrible discovery which they had just made, than they were confronted with another almost equally awful fact—awful, of course, because of its connection with the primary tragedy.
Miss Violet Frostwicke had gone. Her room was
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