FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29  
30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   >>   >|  
is, I imagine, no secret to you. We are tied together, and you have done your best to make the bondage insupportable." "Yes," she answered, with her eyes on the ground, "we are tied together--we are tied together!" She repeated these words under her breath as they walked the few remaining steps to the Outlook. Bodman sat down upon the crumbling wall. The woman dropped her alpenstock on the rock, and walked nervously to and fro, clasping and unclasping her hands. Her husband caught his breath as the terrible moment drew near. "Why do you walk about like a wild animal?" he cried. "Come here and sit down beside me, and be still." She faced him with a light he had never before seen in her eyes--a light of insanity and of hatred. "I walk like a wild animal," she said, "because I am one. You spoke a moment ago of your hatred of me; but you are a man, and your hatred is nothing to mine. Bad as you are, much as you wish to break the bond which ties us together, there are still things which I know you would not stoop to. I know there is no thought of murder in your heart, but there is in mine. I will show you, John Bodman, how much I hate you." The man nervously clutched the stone beside him, and gave a guilty start as she mentioned murder. "Yes," she continued, "I have told all my friends in England that I believed you intended to murder me in Switzerland." "Good God!" he cried. "How could you say such a thing?" "I say it to show how much I hate you--how much I am prepared to give for revenge. I have warned the people at the hotel, and when we left two men followed us. The proprietor tried to persuade me not to accompany you. In a few moments those two men will come in sight of the Outlook. Tell them, if you think they will believe you, that it was an accident." The mad woman tore from the front of her dress shreds of lace and scattered them around. Bodman started up to his feet, crying, "What are you about?" But before he could move toward her she precipitated herself over the wall, and went shrieking and whirling down the awful abyss. The next moment two men came hurriedly round the edge of the rock, and found the man standing alone. Even in his bewilderment he realised that if he told the truth he would not be believed. WHICH WAS THE MURDERER? Mrs. John Forder had no premonition of evil. When she heard the hall clock strike nine she was blithely singing about the house as she attended t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29  
30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
moment
 

Bodman

 

hatred

 

murder

 
animal
 
believed
 

nervously

 
Outlook
 

breath

 

walked


crying

 

scattered

 
started
 

shreds

 
persuade
 
accompany
 

proprietor

 

imagine

 
moments
 

accident


Forder

 

premonition

 

MURDERER

 
attended
 

singing

 
blithely
 

strike

 

realised

 

shrieking

 

whirling


precipitated

 

bewilderment

 
standing
 

hurriedly

 

insupportable

 

insanity

 
bondage
 
dropped
 

alpenstock

 

ground


terrible

 

answered

 

unclasping

 

clasping

 
caught
 

husband

 
Switzerland
 

intended

 
secret
 

friends