Blodget heard from the voice that she must be just outside the door, or rather, we may say with more precision, just on the other side of it. Full of revengeful thoughts at the idea that she had endangered his safety by her obstinate, and what we would call heroic, resistance to be robbed, he determined on her destruction.
Placing a revolver within a couple of inches of the panel of the door, and close to the side of the face of Kitty, although at the moment the girl was too confused to see it, he fired.
The report was very stunning.
Kitty fell to the floor from fright with a loud scream.
‘Hush!’ said Blodget, as he held up his hands, in an attitude of listening. ‘Hush!’
All was still.
A deep groan came from the inner room.
‘Ha! ha!’ cried Blodget. ‘I have hit her!’
It was at that moment that a shrill whistle sounded through the house, and Blodget at once recognized it as the alarm that he had told the man whose duty it was to stay at the outer door of the house to give in case of danger.
‘It is all over,’ said Blodget, ‘and it will be a close touch now as regards escape.’