hat the hell does _this_ mean?"

Lorry dropped Estelle's hand and stood up, Estelle behind him, a
restraining hand on his shoulder. Both were white to the lips; their sky,
the moment before so clear and still, was now black and thunderous with a
frightful storm. Estelle saw that her brother was far from sober; and the
sight of his sister caressed by Lorry Tague would have maddened him even
had he not touched liquor. She darted between the two men. "Don't be a
goose, Arden," she panted, with a hysterical attempt to laugh.

"That fellow was touching you!" stormed Arden. "You miserable disgrace!"
And he lifted his hand threateningly to her.

Lorry put his arm round her and drew her back, himself advancing. "You
must be careful how you act toward the woman who is to be my wife, Mr.
Wilmot," he said, afire in all his blood of the man who has the right to
demand of the whole world the justice he gives it.

Arden Wilmot stared dumfounded, first at Lorry, then at Estelle. In the
pause, Adelaide, drawn from the library by the sound of Arden's fury,
reached the front doorway, saw the three, instantly knew the whole cause
of this sudden, harsh commotion. With a twitch that was like the shaking
off of a detaining grasp, with a roar like a mortally wounded beast's,
Arden recovered the use of limbs and voice. "You infernal lump of dirt!"
he yelled. Adelaide saw his arm swing backward, then forward, and up--saw
something bright in his hand. A flash--"O God, God!" she moaned. But she
could not turn her eyes away or close them.

Lorry stood straight as a young sycamore for an instant, turned toward
Estelle. "Good-by--my love!" he said softly, and fell, face downward,
with his hands clasping the edge of her dress.

And Estelle--

She made no sound. Like a ghost, she knelt and took Lorry's head in her
lap; with one hand against each of his cheeks she turned his head.
"Lorry! Lorry!" she murmured in a heartbreaking voice that carried far
through the stillness.

Arden put the revolver back in his pocket, seized her by the
shoulder. "Come away from that!" he ordered roughly, and half-lifted
her to her feet.

With a cry so awful that Adelaide swayed and almost swooned at hearing
it, Estelle wrenched herself free, flung herself on her lover's body,
buried her fingers in his hair, covered his dead face with kisses, bathed
her lips in the blood that welled from his heart. Shouts and heavy, quick
tramping from many directions--the tempe