“I will kill him to-night.”
“Oh, come, you are only boasting.”
“I will kill him, I tell you!”
“And I don’t believe you.”
With a savage gesture Firmin turned and left her.
CHAPTER XIV.
CRIME.
In her soul Catherine felt quite positive that Firmin would not dare perpetrate the act he had voluntarily promised to do; still she resolved to keep Savin out that night, if possible. By a grim fatality, however, Savin went abroad on his own account.
When Catherine reached home she found him still sound asleep. Overcome by fatigue, he had dropped into slumber without removing his clothes several hours before. At about five o’clock in the afternoon he awoke with a sudden start, ate a bit of luncheon, and then set to work cleaning his gun, being thus and in other ways engaged until nearly ten o’clock, when without a word he shouldered his weapon and started out of the house.