At length old Peter's tight grasp relaxed, the treasured gold fell from his grasp and rolled here and there upon the floor.
Haidee felt him writhing in her clasp and loosened the hold she had upon his throat, and suffered him to fall upon the floor.
He lay there, rolling and tossing, and uttering hideous groans, while dreadful contortions passed over his features.
"You have killed your husband, woman! Look at his throat, purple from the clasp of your hands!" cried Mrs. Vance from the doorway, laughing aloud at the shocked, incredulous stare of the woman as she gazed at her writhing husband.
At that moment the suffering man gave a furious plunge, rose to a sitting posture, gave a hideous rattle from his throat, and fell backward with a dull thud on the bare floor. He was dead!
Old Haidee stooped over the still form like one dazed.
"Is he really dead?" she said in wonder, feeling that it could not be true. "Have I actually killed my old man?"
"Yes, you have killed him," answered Mrs. Vance, with a fiendish laugh. "Ha, ha, old woman, what is your fatal secret worth now? You, too, are a murderess!"
Old Haidee stood still for a moment, utterly stunned and bewildered by the suddenness of the blow that had fallen upon her. But as she gazed at the triumphant face of her enemy, her dazed senses seemed to clear and a perception of the truth rushed upon her.
"You lie!" she shrieked, in a voice of horrible rage and despair. "Devil, you have poisoned him, and me, too; I see it all now! You sent me out for the water while you drugged the tea! But I will have my revenge before I die!"