With one effort he tore down the piece of wainscoting and cried in a loud voice,—
“Hilloa!”
Ada made a rush to the ladder, but an arm suddenly arrested her progress with such violence that she fell to the ground with great force.
Ada lay for a moment or two stunned by her fall, and she heard only indistinctly the voice of Elias cry,—
“Hilloa! Below there. Oh, here’s a ladder, is there? Well, that’s what I call providential.“
Elias was upon the ladder, and cautiously descending backwards, when Ada shrieked,—
“Beware!—Treachery!”
Elias paused a moment. Then there was a bright flash, a loud report, and a heavy fall, all of which were succeeded by a silence as awful and profound as that of the grave. Ada rose partially from the floor, and a dreadful consciousness of what had occurred came across her mind.
“Jacob Gray,” she said, “you are a murderer—a murderer.”
“I—I was compelled to do the deed,” said Gray, in a low hoarse voice. “Come away—come away, Ada. Let us fly from hence—come away.”