The Circular Staircase -- Chapter XX

CHAPTER XX: Doctor Walker’s Warning

Warner was on his knees in a moment, fumbling at the old man’s collar to loosen it, but Halsey caught his hand.

“Let him alone,” he said. “You can’t help him; he is dead.”

We stood there, each avoiding the other’s eyes; we spoke low and reverently in the presence of death, and we tacitly avoided any mention of the susp…