She broke away in a frenzy of rage and fear, and got into
the house while Gertrude and Jack Bailey were at the front door.
She went up-stairs, hardly knowing what she was doing.
Gertrude's door was open, and Halsey's revolver lay there on the
bed. She picked it up and turning, ran part way down the
circular staircase. She could hear Arnold fumbling at the lock
outside. She slipped down quietly and opened the door: he was
inside before she had got back to the stairs. It was quite dark,
but she could see his white shirt-bosom. From the fourth step
she fired. As he fell, somebody in the billiard-room screamed
and ran. When the alarm was raised, she had had no time to get
up-stairs: she hid in the west wing until every one was down on
the lower floor. Then she slipped upstairs, and threw the
revolver out of an upper window, going down again in time to
admit the men from the Greenwood Club.
If Thomas had suspected, he had never told. When she found the
hand Arnold had injured was growing worse, she gave the
address of Lucien at Richfield to the old man, and almost a
hundred dollars. The money was for Lucien's board until she
recovered. She had sent for me to ask me if I would try to
interest the Armstrongs in the child. When she found herself
growing worse, she had written to Mrs. Armstrong, telling her
nothing but that Arnold's legitimate child was at Richfield, and
imploring her to recognize him. She was dying: the boy was an
Armstrong, and entitled to his father's share of the estate.
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