Her pale lips parted, and she interrupted.
"Oh, let me see him, let me speak to him! This is so horrible, so sudden!"
"You will have to board the train to see him. He is in the rear car, having slipped on almost under the eyes of an officer watching for him. Come," and he attempted to take her hand and draw her forward.
But she shrank back in nameless terror, moaning:
"Oh, I—can't—go! I am afraid. Oh, tell me what it is that he has done!"
He bent closer, muttering one terrible word:
"Murder!"
The word struck her like a blow in the face, then pierced like a dagger to her heart.
"Oh-h-h!" she gasped, throwing out her white, agonized hands as if to ward off a stroke of fate.