“I drew the sliding panel right back, held aside the dangling garments, and, climbing through into the cupboard, pushed open the doors.  A faint glimmer of light from the street made dimly visible the mattress on the floor and two indistinct dark shapes stretched on it.  I stepped quickly across the room, breathing as little as possible of the unspeakably foul air, and struck a wax match.  It burned dimly and smokily, but showed me the two murderers, lying in easy postures, their faces livid and ghastly in hue but peaceful enough in expression.  When I lowered the match, its flame dwindled and turned blue, and at eighteen inches from the floor it went out as if dipped in water.  At that height the heavy gas must have been nearly pure.  The room was a veritable Grotto del Cane.

“I stooped quickly, holding my breath, and felt the wrists of the two men.  They were chilly to the touch and no vestige of pulse was perceptible.  I shook them both vigorously, but failed to elicit any responsive movement.  They were quite limp and inert and I had no doubt that they were dead.  My work was done.  The policemen were now safe, whatever follies they might commit; and it only remained for me to remove the traces of the fairy godmother who had labored through the night to save them from their own exuberant courage.

“Passing back through the opening, I drew away the now unnecessary pipe, closed the two panels, and carried the little stove down to my bedroom.  I looked at the unruffled bed—­mute but eloquent witness to the night’s activity—­and deciding as a measure of prudence to give it the appearance of having been slept in, took off my boots and crept in between the sheets.  But I was not in the least degree drowsy.  Quite the contrary.  I was all agog to see the end of the comedy in which I had, all unknown, taken the leading part; so that after tossing about for a few minutes I sprang out of bed, resumed my boots and poured out a basin full of water to refresh myself by a wash.

“And now once more observe the strangely indirect lines of causation.  The towels on the horse were damp and none too clean.  I flung them into the dirty-linen basket and dragged open the drawer in which the clean ones were kept.  It was the bottom drawer of a cheap pine chest that I had bought in Whitechapel High Street.  That chest of drawers was of unusual size; it was four feet wide by nearly five feet high, and the two bottom drawers were each fully eighteen inches deep, and were far larger than was necessary for my modest stock of household linen.

“I pulled out the bottom drawer, then, and as its great cavity yawned before me, it offered a not unnatural suggestion.  The length of an average man’s head and trunk is under thirty-six inches.  Allowing a few inches more for his feet and ankles, a cavity forty-eight inches long is amply sufficient for his accommodation.  Flinging out the towels and sheets that lay in the drawer, I got in and lay down with my knees drawn up.  Of course there was room and to spare.