her weary brain, and she
looked down again at the fisherman, far below. He had moved a little,
and just then she could see him only through the branches of a
projecting cherry-tree. He seemed to be baiting his hook for another
cast in the river.

"Madame Patoff, are you quite ready?" asked the professor's voice from
the window.

"Yes," she said, rising to her feet. "I am coming."

"One moment,--I am just paying the bill," answered Cutter from within;
and Madame Patoff could hear the landlord counting out the small change
upon a plate, the ringing silver marks and the dull little clatter of
the nickel ten-pfennig pieces.

She was standing now, and she looked over the torrent at the dark forest
beyond, endeavoring to fix the beautiful scene in her mind, and trying
to forget her trouble. But it would not be forgotten, and as she stood
up the whole scene with Paul came vividly to her mind. She remembered
all her loathing for him, all the horror and all the furious anger she
had felt at the sight of him. In the keen memory of that bitter meeting,
rendered tenfold more vivid by the overwrought state of her brain, the
blood rushed violently to her face, her head swam, and she put out her
hand to steady herself, thinking there was a railing before her. But the
parapet was low, scarcely reaching to her knees. She tottered, lost her
balance, and with a wild shriek fell headlong into the abyss.

Cutter dropped his change and rushed frantically to the window,
well-nigh falling over the low parapet himself. His face was ghastly, as
he leaned far forward and looked down. Then he uttered an exclamation of
terror, and seemed about to attempt to climb over the balcony. Not ten
feet below him the wretched woman hung suspended in the thick branches
of the wild cherry tree, caught by her clothes. Cutter breathed hard,
for he had never seen so horrible a sight. At any moment the material of
her dress might give way, the branches might break under the heavy
strain. He looked wildly round for help. Between the balcony and the
trees there were ten feet of smooth rock, which would not have given a
foothold to a lizard.

"Catch hold, there!" cried a loud voice from above, and Cutter saw a new
rope dangling before him into the abyss. He looked up as he seized the
means of help, and saw at the upper window the square dark face of a
strong man, who was clad in a flannel shirt and had a silver-mounted
pipe in his mouth.

"Go ahead,--it's fa