Fifty Candles (Wildside Mystery Classics)

DEATH IN SAN FRANCISCO . . . Suddenly from across the hall came a cry sharp uncanny terrible. I ran out in the direction from which it had come and stood on the threshold of the Drew dining room. A table was set with gleaming silver and white linen and in its center stood a cake on which fifty absurd pink candles flickered bravely. There appeared to be no one in the room. On the other side of the table a French window stood open to the fog and I went around to investigate. I had taken perhaps a dozen steps when I stopped appalled. Old Drew was lying on the carpet and one yellow lean hand always so adept at reaching out and seizing held a corner of the white tablecloth. There was a dark stain on the left side of his dress coat; and when I pulled the coat back I saw on the otherwise spotless linen underneath a great red circle that grew and grew. He was quite dead. I stood erect and for a dazed uncertain moment I stared about the room. Beside me on the table fifty yellow points of flame trembled like human things terrified at what they had seen.