Page:The Mystery of Madeline Le Blanc (1900).djvu/48

48 "O let me live!"

"It is in my power."

"Let me live."

"On one condition, that you give me your body; or if you refuse, you shall be buried forever to-morrow, and molder in the ground as do the dead, worms shall gnaw your cheeks—here—and your mouth shall be a grinning doorway to the palace of living, creeping vermin.”

"O God!”

"There is no God, Do you agree?"

"O let me live!"

"It is done," and Satiani poured the contents of a phial between her lips, and at the same instant pressed a sponge over her face.

There was knocking on the doors at which the father, priest and others had gone out,

Stealthily Satiani unlocked them, and, falling on his knees by the couch, cried, "O God, take this soul unto Thyself!" loud enough to be heard by the impatient ears without the room. One sentence after another of this mockery of prayer came from his diabolical throat; and in less than ten seconds, amid the roaring of