Her right foot was upon
the stone, sustaining the whole weight of her person. Her left was
advanced and lifted to another fragment which lay beyond. As she
looked back she met the eyes of Stevens. Just then he saw the large
fragment yield beneath her feet. She seemed suddenly conscious of
it in the same moment, and sprung rapidly on that to which her left
foot was already advanced. The impetus of this movement, sent the
rock over which she had left. This disturbed the balance of that
to which she had risen, and while the breath of the stranger hung
suspended in the utterance of the meditated warning, the catastrophe
had taken place. The stone shrank from beneath her, and, sinking
with it, in another moment, she was hidden from sight in the still,
deep waters of the lake.
CHAPTER XVI.
SOUSING A GURNET.
The disappearance of Margaret Cooper was succeeded by a shriek
from above--a single shriek--a cry of terror and despair; and in
the same instant the form of William Hinkley might have been seen
cleaving the air, with the boldness of a bird, secure always of
his wing, and descending into the lake as nearly as it was possible
for him to come, to the spot where she had sunk.
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