"Perhaps you are right; very well."

She arose as deliberately as she dared and went to her dresser for
another handkerchief. At the moment she opened the linen case her ears,
strained to the utmost, caught a murmur from below stairs. Turning
quickly to see if the man also had heard, the door was pushed open and
Katie's neat cap filled the aperture.

* * * * *

"Get on as fast as you can, driver," said George Randolph, as he and
Mabel took seats in the village stage. Then turning to his companion, he
said in reassuring tones: "Don't be frightened, dear; she is all right."

"I know it is foolish," said Mabel, half crying; "but those wretched
placards made me nervous, and all that talk about escaped murderers and
lunatics. I am fairly beside myself; do hurry!"

As the wide portals of Crestdale appeared, Mabel cried, in sudden
terror:

"Something is wrong, George; see how dim the lights are! She would never
welcome us like this. Don't wait to ring; open the doors!"

As George fitted his key in the lock and swung wide the door, a shrill
scream from above made their blood curdle. Shriek upon shriek followed,
as Katie came bounding down the stairs, almost knocking backward the
two who ran past her to Jessie's room. White and lifeless they found
her, prostrate, her arm still bound with the handkerchief. She had risen
nobly to the awful emergency, but succumbed when relief came.