"Help! Murder! Help!"
"Beast!" he muttered, and put the weapon down on the writing-table.
For a moment he stood irresolute, not sure whether to attempt escape or let himself be found where he was. Then he raised his eyes and saw standing on the dark threshold a tall, ghost-like form. It was Ulrich, and the woman was grovelling at his feet. Leo felt no shock of surprise.
"Now he knows!" was his first thought--"knows." And he wondered coolly how he would take it.
"Speak," said Ulrich, in a voice that was strange to Leo. "What are you doing here?" It seemed as if he grew taller and taller.
"Speak," said the strange voice, a second time.
"He was going to murder me!" sobbed Felicitas, kneeling before him in her nakedness. "Because--I--wouldn't do--what he wanted, he was going to murder me----"
Leo came a step nearer. His hands itched to strangle her before she could lie further. But Ulrich's eyes petrified him.
"Don't listen to her," he stammered. "But shoot me down; here I am."
The figure in the door began to reel, and a long bony hand was stretched out to the wall for support.