I think she proved that throughout the
many trying circumstances connected with the investigation of the case.
She gave only one glance at the room and realized the situation. On the
arm-chair, with head thrown back and eyes closed, lay Mr. Ireland,
apparently in a dead faint; some terrible shock must have very suddenly
shattered his nervous system, and rendered him prostrate for the moment.
What that shock had been it was pretty easy to guess.
"The door of the safe was wide open, and Mr. Ireland had evidently
tottered and fainted before some awful fact which the open safe had
revealed to him; he had caught himself against a chair which lay on the
floor, and then finally sunk, unconscious, into the arm-chair.
"All this, which takes some time to describe," continued the man in the
corner, "took, remember, only a second to pass like a flash through
Mrs. Ireland's mind; she quickly turned the key of the glass door,
which was on the inside, and with the help of James Fairbairn, the
watchman, she carried her husband upstairs to his room, and immediately
sent both for the police and for a doctor.
"As Mrs. Ireland had anticipated, her husband had received a severe
mental shock which had completely prostrated him. The doctor prescribed
absolute quiet, and forbade all worrying questions for the present.
Pages:
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173