Dead Mrs Stratton (Jumping Jenny)

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FROM the triple gallows three figures swung lazily, one woman and two men.

Only a gentle creaking of their ropes sounded in the quiet night. A horn lantern, perched above the triangle of the crosspieces, swayed in the slight wind, causing the three shadows to leap and prance on the ground in a grotesque dance of death, like some macabre travesty of a slow - motion film in silhouette.

"Very nice," said Roger Sheringham.

"It is rather charming, isn't it?" agreed his host.

"Two jumping jacks, I see, and one jumping jenny."

"Jumping jenny?"

"Doesn't Stevenson in Catriona call them jumping jacks? And I suppose the feminine would be jumping jenny."

"I suppose it would."

"Morbid devil, Ronald," Roger said curiously, "aren't you?"

Ronald Stratton laughed. "Well, I thought at a murderer - and - victim party the least one could have was a gallows. It took me quite a long time to stuff those chaps with straw. Two of my suits, and an old dress dug up from goodness knows where. I may be morbid, but I am conscientious."

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