The Old Woman Was Dead, and the Axe Snatched Up by the Old Woman.

She was dead. Her eyes seemed to be staring out of their sockets. The brow and the whole face were drawn and contorted convulsively. He laid the axe on the ground near the dead body and felt it once in her pocket, trying to avoid the streaming body. It was the same right-hand pocket from which she had taken the key on his last visit. His hands were still trembling when he pulled out the keys at once. They were all as before, in one bunch on a steel ring. But that was only for an instant. There was no doubt that she was dead. Bending down and examining her again more closely, he saw clearly that the skull was broken