Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-25

Frances Durkin knew the man she mad
to face. She knew the pagan and primor-
dial malevolence Of the being, the almost
demoniacal passions that could sweep
through him. More than once she had seen
his obsessions tremble on the verge of ut
ter madness. She had come to know the
ratlike pertinacity, the morbid, demen-
tating narrowness of mind, that made him
what he was. In his artful and ruthless
campaign against Penfield, in his relentless
crushing of old-time confederates, in each
and all of his earlier underground adven-
lures, she had seen the Sullen, bulldog, bru-
tai contumacy of the man.
She expected nothing from him, neither
mercy nor quarter. And yet, she told
herself. she was in no way afraid of him.
AS she had felt before time and time again,
in moments of great danger, a vague sense
of duality of being took possession of her,
as if mind stood detached from body to
f1utter and dodge through the darkness be-
fore her, freed from its sheath of flesh.
She felt that she might kill him now, II
the chance came. quite easily and calmly.
Yet she still diffidently half hoped that Tie
chance would be denied her. 1t was not
that she would be cowardly about it, but
1t seemed to her the darker and more du-
bious way out of it all.
No; it was he who must do the killing. she
told herself, with a sudden pang of half
delirious abnegation.
That was the utter and ultimate solution
Of the tangled problem; it would be over
and done with in a minute. She had lived
by the sword and she could die by the
sword; from that moment, too, would be
counted the days of MacNutt's own doom,
the release and the deliverance of Durkln!
She seemed to hug this new self-illumin-
alton to her, and smile of scorn trembled
on her lips as he stood over her, in his
white and shaking wrath.
"Oh, know you, you she-devil! he sud
denly cried out, with an animal-like snarl
from the depths of his fiabby throat. Il
IN hat aft inS
do the cheap-heroine act; you think you'll
end it by comm between him and me this
way! You think you'll save his puny
piker'S heart a last pang or two, don't you!
You think you'll cheat me out of that, do
you? You think that it's just between you
and me now, eh, and that you can do your
martyrs act here while he's off some
where else moonin' about your eyebrows
and takin it easy
And he laughed horribly. quietly.
mo" he cried, with a volley of the
foulest oaths; mo! If I'm goin to get the
name I'm goin' to have the game. l mean
to get my moneys worth out o this! m
goin to kill YOU you cat, but I'm goin to
do it in my own way.
The room, which rang with his hoarse
voice, seemed to grow small and dark and
cell-like. The great. gorla-lke figure. in
the gray light. seemed to draw back and
go long way off, and then tower over her
once more.
You're going to kill me?" she gasped,
as though the thought of it had come
home to her for the first time.
Her more ecstatic moment of reckless
ness had passed strangely away, and had
left her helpless and craven.
Nothing but terror was written on her
face as she covered back from him and
sided along the wall, with her fingers
cropping crafty over it's blind surface as
though some unlooked-for door of release
might open to their touch
You cat! You cat" he cried
hoarsely, as he leaped toward her and tried
to catch her by the throat. She writhed
away from him and twisted and lodged
and fought until she had gained the door
between the front and the back room
Through this. cat-ike, she shot sidewise
and swung to the door with all her
strength.
1t had been her intention to bolt and lock
it, if possible. But he had beer too quick