s
cut down, you can see straight into his library from here. There he is
now, sitting at his desk."

"Mamma!" pleaded Alice, rising and trying to take the glass away from
her. "Don't do that, I beg!"

"Nonsense," said her mother, keeping her away with one hand and holding
the glass with the other. "There comes Budsey to close the blinds. The
show is over. No; he goes away, leaving them open."

"Mamma, I will leave the room if----"

"My goodness! look at that!" cried the widow, putting the glass in her
daughter's hand and sinking into a chair with fright.

Alice, filled with a nameless dread, saw her mother was pale and
trembling, and took the glass. She dropped it in an instant, and
leaning from the window sent forth once more that cry of love and
alarm, which rang through the stillness of night with all the power of
her young throat:

"Arthur!"

She turned, and sped down the stairs, and across the lawn like an arrow
shot for life or death from a long-bow.

Farnham heard the sweet, strong voice ringing out of the stillness like
the cry of an angel in a vision, and raised his head with a startled
movement from the desk where he was writing. Offitt heard it, too, as
he raised his hand to strike a deadly blow; and though it did not
withhold him from his murderous purpose, it disturbed somewhat the
precision of his hand. The hammer descended a little to the right of
where he had intended to strike. It made a deep and cruel gash, and
felled Farnham to the floor, but it did not kill him. He rose, giddy
and faint with the blow and half-blinded with the blood that poured
down over his right eye. He clapped his hand, with a soldier's
instinct, to the place where his sword-hilt was not, and then
staggered, rather than rushed, at his assailant, to grapple him with
his naked hands. Offitt struck him once more, and he fell headlong on
the floor, in the blaze of a myriad lights that flashed all at once
into deep darkness and silence.

The assassin, seeing that his victim no longer moved, threw down his
reeking weapon, and, seizing the packages of money on the desk, thrust
them into his pockets. He stepped back through the open window and
stooped to pick up his shoes. As he rose, he saw a sight which for an
instant froze him with terror. A tall and beautiful form, dressed all
in white, was swiftly gliding toward him over the grass. It drew near,
and he saw its pale features set in a terrible expression of pity and
horror.