At the threshold of the door over which she had passed as a serpent, leaving a trail of venom on all it touched, she paused and looked back with a muttered curse toward the library whence came the murmur of happy voices.
“Curse them! I hope I may find a chance to pay them back yet!” she hissed, malevolently, as she followed Finette down the steps to the broad, white-graveled path between the orange-trees. The rising moon threw a broad white light over everything, and for a minute the maid stopped short.
“How happy they are at getting rid of us!” she ejaculated. “Listen to their happy laughter, miladi. You will never hear it again.”
Camille paused and turned her head toward the sound of the happy voices that floated through the open library window, and then a most horrible thing happened.
Finette Du Val, the treacherous maid, as if moved by some irresistible impulse or meditated villainy, suddenly snatched a shining dagger from her belt and plunged it to the hilt in Camille’s back. As she shrieked and fell, the murderess tore the satchel of jewels from her grasp, and fled wildly from the scene of her hideous crime.
The sound of Camille’s agonized shrieks floated into the window, where they were all talking so happily after their deliverance from danger and sorrow. Dr. Hinton ran out hastily, but the rest waited. They thought Camille was only in hysterics again.
Dr. Hinton bent over her, and saw the great pool of blood on the white gravel.
“My God!” he cried, in horror; and a weak voice moaned:
“Finette Du Val, the evil genius of my life, has robbed and murdered me. She has taken my satchel of unset jewels, my whole fortune, and fled!”
“Horrible!” cried the young man; and his shrill cry brought all the others rushing out.