eorgian and her twin sister.

CHAPTER XII

"GEORGIAN!"

Mr. Ransom was the first one in the hall. He had not undressed himself,
expecting a totally sleepless night. It was his figure, then, that the
maid encountered as she came running from her post at the end of the
corridor.

"Which room? which?" he gasped out, ignoring every precaution in his
blind terror.

"This one. I am sure it came from this one," she declared, knocking
loudly on Anitra's door.

There was a rustle within, a cry which was half a sob, then the sound of
a hand fumbling with the lock. Meanwhile, Mr. Ransom had bent his ear to
his wife's door.

"All still in here," he cried. "Not a sound. Something dreadful has
happened--"

Just then Anitra's door fell back and a wild image confronted him and
such others as had by this time collected in the passageway. With only a
shawl covering her nightdress, the gipsy-like creature stood clawing the
air and answering the looks that appealed to her, with wild gurgles, till
suddenly her hot glances fell on Roger Ransom, when she instantly became
rigid and stammered out:

"She's gone! I saw her black figure go by my window. She called out that
the waterfall drew her. She went by the little balcony and the roof. The
roof was slippery with the rain and she fell. That's why I screamed. But
she got up again. What is she going to do at the waterfall? Stop her!
stop her! She hasn't steady feet like me, and I wasn't really angry. I
liked her; I liked her."

Sobs choked the rest. Her terror was infectious. Mr. Ransom reeled, then
flung himself at Georgian's door. It resisted but the silence within told
him that she was not there. Neither was she in Anitra's room. They could
all look in and see it bare to the window.

"You saw her climbing past there?" he cried, forgetting she was deaf.

"Yes, yes," she chattered, catching his meaning from his pointing finger.
"There's a balcony. She must have jumped on it from her own window. She
didn't come in here. See! the door is locked on her side."

This was true.

"I woke and saw her. My eyes are like lynx's. I got out of bed to watch.
She fell--"

The noise of a breaking lock snapped her words in two. One of the men
present had flung himself against this communicating door. Immediately
they all crowded into the adjoining room. It was empty and bitterly cold
and wet. An open window explained why, and possibly the letter lying on
the bureau inscribed with he