FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169  
170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   >>  
. She glided down the corridor, down the sweeping stair-way, the soft carpeting muffling every tread--the dim night-lamps lighting her on her way. No human sound startled her. All in the house were peacefully asleep--all save that flying figure, and one other wicked watcher. She gained the door in safety. It yielded to her touch. She opened it, and was out alone in the black, gusty night. Harriet Kingsland's brave heart quailed only for a moment; then she plunged resolutely forward into the gloom. Slipping, stumbling, falling, rising again, the wind beating in her face, the branches catching like angry hands at her garments--still she hurried on. It was a long, long, tortuous path, but it came to an end. The roar of the sea sounded awfully loud as it rose in sullen majesty, the flags of the stone terrace rang under her feet. Panting, breathless, cold as death, she leaned against the iron railing, her hands pressed hard over her tumultuous heart. It was light here. A fitful midnight moon, pale and feeble, was breaking through a rift in the clouds, and shedding its sickly glimmer over the black earth and raging sea. To her eyes, accustomed to the dense darkness, every object was plainly visible. She strained her gaze over the waves to catch the coming boat she knew was to bear those she had come to meet; she listened breathlessly to every sound. But for a weary while she listened, and watched, and waited in vain. What was that? A footstep crashing through the under-wood near at hand. She turned with a wordless cry of terror. A tall, dark figure emerged from the trees and strode straight toward her. An awful voice spoke: "I swore by the Lord who made me I would murder you if you ever came again to meet that man. False wife, accursed traitoress, meet your doom!" She uttered a long, low cry. She recognized the voice--it was the voice of her husband; she recognized the form--her husband's--towering over her, with a long, gleaming dagger in his hand. CHAPTER XXVIII. ON THE STONE TERRACE. When Sybilla Silver parted from Lady Kingsland outside the chamber door, she went straight to her own room, and began her preparations for that night's work. The flaming red spots, all foreign to her usual complexion, blazed on either cheek-bone; her black eyes shone like the eyes of a tigress crouched in a jungle. But she never faltered--she never wavered in her deadly purpose. The aim of her
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169  
170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   >>  



Top keywords:
Kingsland
 

recognized

 

husband

 

straight

 

figure

 
listened
 
watched
 

breathlessly

 
coming
 

terror


wordless

 

turned

 
crashing
 

strode

 
waited
 

emerged

 
footstep
 
uttered
 

flaming

 

foreign


preparations

 

chamber

 

complexion

 

blazed

 

wavered

 

faltered

 

deadly

 

purpose

 

jungle

 

crouched


tigress

 
parted
 

traitoress

 

accursed

 

murder

 
towering
 

TERRACE

 
Sybilla
 

Silver

 
dagger

gleaming
 

CHAPTER

 
XXVIII
 
quailed
 

moment

 

Harriet

 
yielded
 

opened

 
plunged
 

resolutely