"Listen to my voice, Liz, and let that convince you that I am not Ben. Indeed you are wrong, dear. Don't you know how we were talking just now about the will that was made, and you said that Ben knew where it was? Don't you remember how poor little Dick tried to tell us something about it? I am Leonie, Liz; can't you understand that, dear?"
She shook her head.
"You are trying to deceive me, but you can't do it."
"Then if I promise you that I will not touch Dick!"
"You can't fool me; I knew you were Ben, but you thought I would not recognize you in the darkness. I am going to kill you, then I am going to take my boy and go away where no one will ever know. Oh, I have thought of it often, often! I have all my plans made, and when they find you they will never suspect that I had anything to do with it. I have always known that it would come to this sooner or later, and I have thought many times of how I would do it—just with this long, thin knife that I have got in my hand. It will go to your heart so easily that I don't think that any one will ever see the wound that it will make. I don't want to hurt you any more than I can, for I used to love you, Ben; but I am going to free Dick. Do you hear, Ben? I hope you are ready to die, for as there is a God your time has come!"
There in the darkness, with only those glittering eyes visible, and the faintest outline of her surroundings, even with a revolver clasped in her hand, the position was one of almost incalculable danger to Leonie, who knew as little about a revolver as a child.
Her teeth chattered with terror.
She saw the woman creeping toward her again, and a wild desire to escape if the most desperate chances were required, took possession of her. Her heart seemed almost to stop its beating.
She turned and fled, careless of direction, and the next instant tripped over something, tumbling to the floor with a crash!
The pistol flew from her hand.