'I say there!' he called loudly.
Beatrice stood below in horrible suspense.
'Go in!' she cried. 'Go in! Is he there?' The man stepped very cautiously with one foot on to the balcony, and
peered forward. But the glass door reflected into his eyes. He followed
slowly with the other foot, and crept forward, ready at any moment to
take flight.
'Hie, hie!' he suddenly cried in terror, and he drew back.
Beatrice was opening her mouth to scream, when the window-cleaner
exclaimed weakly, as if dubious: 'I believe 'e's 'anged 'imself from the door-'ooks!' 'No!' cried Beatrice. 'No, no, no!' 'I believe 'e 'as!' repeated the man.
'Go in and see if he's dead!' cried Beatrice.
The man remained in the doorway, peering fixedly.
'I believe he is,' he said doubtfully.
'No--go and see!' screamed Beatrice.
The man went into the room, trembling, hesitating. He approached the
body as if fascinated. Shivering, he took it round the loins and tried
to lift it down. It was too heavy.
'I know!' he said to himself, once more bustling now he had something to
do. He took his clasp-knife from his pocket, jammed the body between
himself and the door so that it should not drop, and began to saw his
way through the leathern strap. It gave. He started, and clutched the
body, dropping his knife. Beatrice, below in the garden, hearing the
scuffle and the clatter, began to scream in hysteria. The man hauled the
body of Siegmund, with much difficulty, on to the bed, and with
trembling fingers tried to unloose the buckle in which the strap ran. It
was bedded in Siegmund's neck. The window-cleaner tugged at it
frantically, till he got it loose. Then he looked at Siegmund. The dead
man lay on the bed with swollen, discoloured face, with his
sleeping-jacket pushed up in a bunch under his armpits, leaving his side
naked. Beatrice was screaming below. The window-cleaner, quite unnerved,
ran from the room and scrambled down the ladder. Siegmund lay heaped on
the bed, his sleeping-suit twisted and bunched up about him, his face
hardly recognizable.