"That you may make love to this girl you have the cheek to tell me is crazy? Bah! I tell you there's method in her madness. I believe you have pretended to be a single man, and that, as you ruined and murdered Victoria Vane, you would ruin and slay this beautiful girl. I will not permit you to do it!"
"What! You will step in and destroy my plans? By Heaven you shall not! I will strangle you first!"
She uttered a terrified scream as he sprang at her, and clutched her throat furiously.
CHAPTER XV.
HIRAM SHANKS.
"Help! Murder!"
It was a startling cry that echoed through the grounds and fell on the ear of the man who was passing.
He listened a moment, but the sound was not repeated.
Vaulting the fence, the man hastened in the direction of the summer-house.
He soon gained a position where his black eyes took in a somewhat startling scene—a tall, slender man bending over the prostrate form of a woman, the latter lying still and white on a low, wide bench.