“One moment,” said Toby.
He struck a match, holding it shielded between his hands until it flared up and lighted the confined space. On a marble slab in the center of the tomb lay a dead body.
“Good God!” cried the judge, recoiling; “it’s Jonathan Eliot!”
An echoing cry came from Toby. Dropping the match he made a bound for the door just as the heavy slab was swinging into place, urged by Elaine’s most desperate efforts. There was no way to open it from the inside, and the danger was imminent. In an instant the young man had thrust his foot into the crack that was now barely large enough to receive it, while Elaine, crowding the weight of her body against the marble, crushed and mangled the heroic boy’s flesh in a last vain effort to entomb her three captors and condemn them to a horrible death.
The next instant the burly form of Sam Parsons thrust back the door. Then he wrapped his arms around the struggling woman and caught her in a firm clasp. Judge Ferguson, trembling with horror, raised Toby from the ground, where he had fallen and lay writhing and moaning with the pain of his maimed and wounded foot.
Snap—snap! went the handcuffs that encircled Elaine’s wrists, while she fought, scratching and biting, to resist capture.
“I’ll carry Toby down to the doctor’s, sir,” said the constable. “You can march ahead with that tigress. There’s no danger, Judge; she can’t escape us now, and we’ll soon land her in jail.”
CHAPTER XXV
FATHER AND SON
The Darings slept soundly that night, all unaware of the tragic events taking place in their neighborhood. However, the adventure was not yet ended for Judge Ferguson, even when the Halliday woman had been securely locked up and the doctor had dressed Toby’s mangled foot and he had been put to bed.