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"Yes, it does," admitted Tuppence. "But, anyway, here goes. Perhaps you'd both
come, too, in case she springs on me, or anything. You see, we don't know what
mood she'll wake up in."
Sir James and Julius accompanied her to the door.
"Where's the key? Oh, of course, I've got it myself."
She put it in the lock, and turned it, then paused.
"
Supposing, after all, she's escaped?" she murmured in a whisper.
Plumb impossible," replied Julius reassuringly.
"
But Sir James said nothing.
Tuppence drew a long breath and entered. She heaved a sigh of relief as she saw
that Mrs. Vandemeyer was lying on the bed.
"
Good morning," she remarked cheerfully. "I've brought you some tea."
Mrs. Vandemeyer did not reply. Tuppence put down the cup on the table by the
bed and went across to draw up the blinds. When she turned, Mrs. Vandemeyer
still lay without a movement. With a sudden fear clutching at her heart,
Tuppence ran to the bed. The hand she lifted was cold as ice.... Mrs. Vandemeyer
would never speak now....
Her cry brought the others. A very few minutes sufficed. Mrs. Vandemeyer was
dead--must have been dead some hours. She had evidently died in her sleep.
"If that isn't the cruellest luck," cried Julius in despair.
The lawyer was calmer, but there was a curious gleam in his eyes.
"
"
"
If it is luck," he replied.
You don't think--but, say, that's plumb impossible--no one could have got in."
No," admitted the lawyer. "I don't see how they could. And yet--she is on the
point of betraying Mr. Brown, and--she dies. Is it only chance?"
"But how----"
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