Page:The Master of Mysteries (1912).djvu/194

 shutter was thrown open at one of the front windows of the house, and a shaft of light made a brilliant path through the deep shadow. A woman's head appeared.

"What is it?" cried Valeska in terror. "Is Miss Dalrymple shot?"

"God knows!" Astro muttered grimly. "Help me over the wall. Give me a foot up, Valeska. We're too late, as I feared; but I must find out what has happened. Driver," he yelled back over his shoulder, "go for a doctor as quick as you can!"

In an instant he had mounted the top of the wall and dropped to the other side. Valeska heard his footsteps running up the gravel walk. After that she waited some time in silence. The cab had driven off with a clatter.

When, after a wait that seemed interminable, Astro returned, Valeska's eyes stared to see him with Miss Dalrymple, who was apparently unharmed. She wore a long mackintosh cape, covering her night dress, and her hair was disordered. A look of horror on her pretty face made her seem a woman almost for the first time. She unlocked the gate and put her slender white arms about Valeska.

"What has happened?" exclaimed the latter.

"What I feared; only, thank heaven, not to Miss Dalrymple!" was Astro's solemn response. "Come this way and you'll see."

He led the way past an apple tree at the side of the house. A few paces beyond this a great hole was torn in the earth, and, by its jagged appearance and slanting sides, it was evident that it had been made by some explosive. Behind a rose bush lay a woman's body.