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For a moment he seemed paralyzed by anger, and then with a loud shriek that
rose into an uncanny wail, he drew his curved saber and sprang toward the
Englishman. To Smith-Oldwick there seemed no possible hope of escaping the
keen-edged weapon in the hands of the infuriated man, and though he felt
assured that it would draw down upon him an equally sudden and possibly more
terrible death, he did the only thing that remained for him to do--drew his pistol
and fired straight for the heart of the oncoming man. Without even so much as a
groan the fellow lunged forward upon the floor at Smith-Oldwick's feet--killed
instantly with a bullet through the heart. For several seconds the silence of the
tomb reigned in the apartment.
The Englishman, standing over the prostrate figure of the dead man, watched the
door with drawn weapon, expecting momentarily to hear the rush of feet of those
whom he was sure would immediately investigate the report of the pistol. But no
sounds came from below to indicate that anyone there had heard the explosion,
and presently the man's attention was distracted from the door to the alcove,
between the hangings of which the face of the girl appeared. The eyes were widely
dilated and the lower jaw dropped in an expression of surprise and awe.
The girl's gaze was riveted upon the figure upon the floor, and presently she crept
stealthily into the room and tiptoed toward the corpse. She appeared as though
constantly poised for flight, and when she had come to within two or three feet of
the body she stopped and, looking up at Smith-Oldwick, voiced some
interrogation which he could not, of course, understand. Then she came close to
the side of the dead man and kneeling upon the floor felt gingerly of the body.
Presently she shook the corpse by the shoulder, and then with a show of strength
which her tenderly girlish form belied, she turned the body over on its back. If
she had been in doubt before, one glance at the hideous features set in death
must have convinced her that life was extinct, and with the realization there
broke from her lips peal after peal of mad, maniacal laughter as with her little
hands she beat upon the upturned face and breast of the dead man. It was a
gruesome sight from which the Englishman involuntarily drew back-a gruesome,
disgusting sight such as, he realized, might never be witnessed outside a
madhouse or this frightful city.
In the midst of her frenzied rejoicing at the death of the man, and Smith-Oldwick
could attribute her actions to no other cause, she suddenly desisted from her
futile attacks upon the insensate flesh and, leaping to her feet, ran quickly to the
door, where she shot a wooden bolt into its socket, thus securing them from
interference from without. Then she returned to the center of the room and spoke
rapidly to the Englishman, gesturing occasionally toward the body of the slain
man. When he could not understand, she presently became provoked and in a
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