"Call Nettie!"
"I would have to go out in the hall—the noise was somewhere near the second stairs."
"But I am so frightened—I shall die!"
"No, you won't. Please be quiet! I have the little revolver!"
Cora crept out of bed and left Belle trembling there. She only advanced a few steps when the sounds in the hall again startled her. The stairs certainly creaked. There was no cat, no dog. Some one was walking on those steps.
Cora realized that discretion was the better part of valor. It would be foolhardy to run out in the hall, even with the cocked revolver in her hand. If she could only touch the button of the electric hall light! She stepped out cautiously. Something seemed very near, yet, at that moment, there was no sound, just that feeling of some one near.
She reached her arm out of the door, touched the button, and, in an instant, had flooded the hall with light.
As she did so she saw a man turn and run down the three steps near the window, part way up the stairs.
The window was open! Cora was too frightened to move for a moment, then she raised her revolver, and the next instant the sound of a shot rang through the house.
The man dropped out of the window.