several minutes to certain dreadful
sounds in the house. Then, suddenly,
a passion of purpose swept the daze
of horror away.

"HE SHALL NOT DIE," she said.
She flung her skirt across her arm
that her feet might not be hampered,
and fled down the road toward Old
Chester. It was very dark. At first
her eyes, still blurred with the lamplight,
could not distinguish the footpath,
and she stumbled over the grassy
border into the wheel-ruts; then, feeling
the loose dust under her feet, she ran
and ran and ran. The blood began to
sing in her ears; once her throat seemed
to close so that she could not breathe,
and for a moment she had to walk,--
but her hands, holding up her skirts,
trembled with terror at the delay.
The road was very dark under the
sycamore-trees; twice she tripped and
fell into the brambles at one side or
against a gravelly bank on the other.
But stumbling somehow to her feet,
again she ran and ran and ran. The
night was very still; she could hear her
breath tearing her throat; once she felt
something hot and salty in her mouth;