Page:Rowland--The Mountain of Fears.djvu/131

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THE SHEARS OF ATROPOS

with the eyes, and this science made the first unnecessary, for you see, Doctor, the girl was looking at her father's murderer—and who knows what beside! Ah, how true it is, as you said a little while ago, that the horror reflected from the eyes of another is far more dreadful than the thing itself!

"Lynch made a movement of dismissal with his hand—a judicial gesture which told me that it was over; the verdict rendered; sentence pronounced. But I was puzzled for the next—eh—step.

"'Take her back, ' I said to the servant.

" 'Dr. Leyden,' said Lynch, 'do you feel that you are in possession of your faculties?' My head was roaring like a cataract, my skin like ice, and my bones were smouldering coals, but my brain was clear—for the moment—too clear.

" 'Quite,' I answered—'in so far as this man is concerned.'

"'What is your opinion? What course would you advise in the matter?'

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