"Idiot! idiot!" she cried out, in tones that seemed to come from the depths of a broken heart. "Oh, Allynne! That word from you! from you!" she moaned, and wrung her hands in bitterness of spirit. As she started back--the pathway was very narrow--she stood on the very verge of the rocky precipice which bordered the road. And as she uttered the last words, her foot slipped. With a scream of genuine terror, re-echoed by Markworth, she fell back, and he could hear the heavy fall of a body below. "Good God!" he exclaimed aloud, rushing forward and peering into the gulf down which she had disappeared, "she must be killed!" He turned round hurriedly, for he could not get down to the bottom of the cliff without retracing his steps by the winding road up which they had just come. And, as he turned, he found himself face to face with-- Clara Kingscott. END OF VOLUME TWO. Volume 3, Chapter I. AT BAY! "Gracious Heavens, Clara! What brings you here?" uttered Markworth, half in astonishment, half in terror, as he suddenly turned round, and was confronted by Miss Kingscott, immediately after Susan had fallen back over the precipice. "Murderer!" she exclaimed, standing right before him in the narrow pathway. "Thank God! I came in time to witness your crime!" "Woman!" cried Markworth, trying to brush past her. "You're mad! What do you mean? Let me pass!" "Murderer!" she repeated, with withering bitterness, still blocking the way. "Murderer!" "Good God! Clara, what do you mean?" "Mean, Allynne Markworth? What do I mean! That you are caught at last in your own toils! I knew you were a swindler, a cheat, a villain! I can now prove that you are a murderer as well!" "For God's sake, Clara, do not say that! You don't think I've murdered the girl?" She still looked him full in the face, but made no reply; so he went on hurriedly-- "Why, she fell over the cliff herself! I never touched her! I was just--" "Ha! ha!" she laughed, a cold, bitter laugh. "Tell that to the officers of justice who will be soon in pursuit of you! To the jury who will try you! To the judge who will sentence you to your final end! I don't want to hear your lying story!" Markworth turned pale and shook with fear. "What do you mean, woman? Who will accuse me? God knows I never meant the poor girl any harm! She slipped, and fell back by accident; and I was just hastening down to her assistance when you--you--" "Murderer!" "Let me go, woman!" he cried, excitedly, shoving past the governess, who threw her arms round him and tried to hold him back. "She's dying, perhaps! I'll be too late! Curse you, let me go!"