His arms sank to his sides quite nervelessly. He uttered a faint
exclamation of astonishment, almost instantly interrupted by a cough.
He swayed there a moment, the cough increasing until it choked him.
Then, suddenly limp, he pitched forward upon his face, and lay
clawing and twitching at Sir Terence's feet.
Sir Terence himself, scarcely realising what had taken place, for
the whole thing had happened within the time of a couple of
heart-beats, stood quite still, amazed and awed, in a half-crouching
attitude, looking down at the body of the fallen man. And then from
above, ringing upon the deathly stillness, he caught a sibilant
whisper:
"What was that? 'Sh!"
He stepped back softly, and flattened himself instinctively against
the wall; thence profoundly intrigued and vaguely alarmed on several
scores he peered up at the windows of his wife's room whence the
sound had come, whence the sudden light had come which - as he now
realised - had given him the victory in that unequal contest.
Looking up at the balcony in whose shadow he stood concealed, he
saw two figures there - his wife's and another's - and at the same
time he caught sight of something black that dangled from the narrow
balcony, and peered more closely to discover a rope ladder.
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