I would
take this ground, at least until it was disproved; time enough then to
devise other means.
Amy's room was next to mine; on the other side slept--and soundly, too,
I would wager--her aunt. Indeed, our rooms connected by a door, always
locked and without a key, of course. By a sudden impulse I took out my
bunch of keys. Fortune favored me; an old key, that of my room at
College, not only fitted perfectly, but opened it as softly as one
could wish, and the door itself never creaked. Locking it again, I went
into Amy's room through the hall. A low light was burning. I looked
about anxiously. Would she find the necessary means at hand without
arousing the household? It must be. Suicide must be quite apparent, and
the instrument must be suggested by its presence, without any search.
Among the trinkets in the large tray on her bureau, lay a tiny dagger
with a sheath. I remembered the day Hilyard gave it to her. The rainy
day when we were all looking over his Eastern curiosities, and she had
admired it, and he had insisted on her accepting it. The handle was of
carved jade, representing a lizard whose eyes were superb rubies, and a
band of uncut rubies ran around the place where the little curved blade
began. Ah! that was it! The very stones made one dream of drops of
blood. I laid it carelessly on the bureau, at the edge of the tray.
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