The house was very quiet. He felt an unaccountable chill coming over
him. On the threshold of the library he paused. He had the sense of
a mysterious presence in the room. The log fire had burnt low; the
lamp on the desk, under his mother's portrait, had been turned down;
deep shadows lay around.
Making an effort he entered, stepping softly, yet hardly knowing why
he did so. On reaching the desk he turned up the light and then his
eye fell on the green portfolio which he had last seen under Joshua
Scarff's arm. It bore a label on which was written:
"_Calendar of Cases to be tried at the Spring Session of the
Court of General Gaol Delivery. Presiding Deemster_--DEEMSTER
VICTOR STOWELL."
Then came a moral thunderclap. Opening the Calendar he read these
words on the first page of it:
_REX _v._ CORTEEN
FOR MURDER
DEPOSITIONS._
_That Elizabeth Corteen, commonly called Bessie Collister, on or
about the fifth day of April--in the parish of Ballaugh, in the
Isle of Man, feloniously, wilfully, and of her malice
aforethought, did kill and murder a certain male child, contrary
to the form of the Statute in such cases made and provided, and
against the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King, his Crown and
dignity._
A mist rose before Stowell's eyes. He could not read any more, but
stood for a moment looking down at the writing. Life seemed to run
out of him in a pounding rush. The walls of the room, and
particularly the picture of his mother, began to reel about in a
rapidly increasing vertigo. He put his hand on a chair but felt
nothing. At the next moment darkness came and he knew no more.