sound which it will make in striking
the hour of five. Are you satisfied with the arrangement?"

"Perfectly. Where is my wife?"

"On the other side of the field, some ten paces from the stump upon
which the clock is fixed."

He bowed, and his face showed satisfaction.

"May I expect the clock to strike soon?"

"In less than five minutes," was the answer.

"Then let me have the pistol; I wish to become acquainted with its size
and weight."

We glanced at each other, then across at her.

She made a gesture; it was one of acquiescence.

Immediately the Inspector placed the weapon in the blind man's hand. It
was at once apparent that the Doctor understood the instrument, and my
last doubt vanished as to the truth of all he had told us.

"Thank God I am blind this hour and cannot see _her_," fell
unconsciously from his lips; then, before the echo of these words had
left my ears, he raised his voice and observed calmly enough,
considering that he was about to prove himself a criminal in order to
save himself from being thought a madman.

"Let no one move. I must have my ears free for catching the first stroke
of the clock." And he raised the pistol before him.

There was a moment of torturing suspense and deep, unbroken silence. My
eyes were on him, and so I did not watch the clock, but suddenly I was
moved by some irresistible impulse to note how Mrs. Zabriskie was
bearing herself at this critical moment, and, casting a hurried glance
in her direction, I perceived her tall figure swaying from side to side,
as if under an intolerable strain of feeling. Her eyes were on the
clock, the hands of which seemed to creep with snail-like pace along the
dial, when unexpectedly, and a full minute before the minute hand had
reached the stroke of five, I caught a movement on her part, saw the
flash of something round and white show for an instant against the
darkness of her cloak, and was about to shriek warning to the Doctor,
when the shrill, quick stroke of a clock rung out on the frosty air,
followed by the ping and flash of a pistol.

A sound of shattered glass, followed by a suppressed cry, told us that
the bullet had struck the mark, but before we could move, or rid our
eyes of the smoke which the wind had blown into our faces, there came
another sound which made our hair stand on end and sent the blood back
in terror to our hearts. Another clock was striking, the clock which we
now perceived was still standing upri