'I am waiting for you.'
He gazed from the open door to that terrible window, where the dreaded power of justice perhaps even then lay concealed.
'It will be over in a single moment.'
He tried to nerve himself for the act. With a single motion of his hand he might hurl the slight girl from the door; with one blow of his powerful fist he could paralyse that arm. But she was quick, and fearfully determined. The risk was too great.
'Coward!' she burst forth in a first expression of passion. 'I am but a weak woman—how weak you can hardly tell. But even for your liberty you will not attack me, for the gift of your life you dare not pass me.'
There was silence, until the splashing of heavy raindrops on the shingle could be distinctly heard.
'Hark! there are other sounds than the rain and the thunder.'
'I hear footsteps,' said Marie, in a barely intelligible voice.
Menotah barred the doorway with a trembling arm. 'Your chance is gone,' she said, yet with a peculiar deliberation. 'You know why these men have come. You do not deserve to live, for you have been false to everyone. They will take you with them, and treat you as they did Riel. They will hang you as they did him.'
She fell back as she spoke against the wall, while the hot breath choked her.