“One—two—three—four——”
“Speak! Is it yes, or no?” he cried, bending toward her, his fiery eyes and breath scorching her face.
But Jess could make him no answer, her lips were stricken dumb.
“Five!” he shouted, and simultaneously with the word the deafening report of the revolver rang out on the stillness of the night air in that lonely spot.
Even as he had uttered the word, Jess sprang forward to wrench the revolver from his grasp and prevent the tragedy, if indeed he really meant to carry out his threat of blowing his brains out. But in her excitement she forgot that he was standing on the very brink of the precipice which overlooked the cataract, and in her intense horror she forgot that the tree which had so recently blown down lay directly across the path, and her foot caught on the up-standing roots, and in less time than it takes to tell it, she had fallen across it, her head hanging over the very edge of the precipice.
If her foot had not been so securely fastened in the intertwining roots, she would surely have gone over it; as it was, she was held fast.
But Jess did not know that, for, with that plunge forward, when her terrified gaze encountered the foaming waters dashing below her into which she was falling headlong, consciousness left her.
For an instant Challoner contemplated the girl and her perilous position with darkening brows.
“If I served her right, I would give her a push which would send her down to the bottom of the falls,” he muttered. “She sprang for me to wrest the weapon from me; I saw that in her eyes, and outstretched hands. The little fool never dreamed that the weapon contained only blank cartridges. I’m not so fond of shuffling off this mortal coil as I led her to believe. In the first place, I think too much of my precious head, and in the second, I intend to remain on this terrestrial sphere long enough to win the Dinsmore millions, if it be within man’s power.”
Very coolly he replaced the revolver in his breast pocket, then set about to release the girl from her uncomfortable position, telling himself that he ought to let her remain there until her senses returned, to see how brave she would be when she found herself hanging head downward over the chasm.