Explore "The Fever of Life" by Fergus Hume on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"Stark and stiff in the lonely night, Stiff and stark in the dawning light, There it lies With unseeing eyes, And placid face of a bloodless white. / "Who hath slain this man by guilt and fraud Bears on his brow, deep-seared and broad, The blood-red stain Which is mark of Cain, Unseen by man but beheld by God. "
The red light of dawn burned in the eastern skies, the first faint thrill of life ran through the earth as the twitter of awakening birds was heard in the green woods, then the glorious sun sent his beams over the chill lands, bathing everything in golden splendour. Thornstream Hall faced to the east, and the great shafts of sunlight breaking through misty morning clouds, pointed downward like the finger of God on to the terrace -- to the open window of Sir Rupert's study, and there in the splendour of sunrise lay a dead man.