The Flaming Jewel blazed in her face amid a heap of glittering gems.
Still she seemed slow to comprehend — as though understanding were paralysed.
It was when her eyes fell upon the watch that her heart seemed to stop.
Suddenly her stunned senses were lighted as by an infernal flare. …
Under the awful blow she swayed upright to her feet, sick with fright,
her eyes fixed on her father's watch.
It was still ticking.
She did not know whether she cried out in anguish or was dumb under it.
The house seemed to reel around her; under foot too.
When she came to her senses she found herself outside the house, running with her rifle, already entering the woods. But, inside the barrier of trees, something blocked her way, stopped her, — a man — her man!
"Eve! In God's name!——" he said as she struggled in his arms; but she fought him and strove to tear her body from his embrace:
"They've killed Dad!" she panted, — "Quintana killed him. I didn't know — oh, I didn't know! — and I let Quintana go! Oh, Jack, Jack, he's at the Place of Pines! I'm going there to shoot him! Let me go! — he's killed Dad, I tell you! He had Dad's watch — and the case of jewels — they were in his pack on the kitchen table——"
"Eve!"
"Let me go!——"