With his knee on her breast and his hands on her throat, the demon’s face was horrible in its savage fury. Low, hissing sounds of hate came from his foam-flecked lips. With a cry of horror, the German flung himself upon the maniac. Emmett Harlow and Mr. Gardner also flew to the rescue, while the maids left their task of wiping the blood from Mrs. Smith’s lips to shriek aloud in consternation. Percy Seabright, in his paroxysm of madness, seemed endowed with the strength of a dozen men. But after a violent struggle he was overpowered and bound securely, for his ungovernable fury could be restrained in no other way. Then Italy was lifted up and carried tenderly into the next room. “She is dead! That devil has killed her!” shrieked Mrs. Gardner, as she beheld Italy’s face and throat all crimson and purple from the pressure of Percy Seabright’s cruel hands. The girl lay without breath or motion, and a horrible fear seized upon all that she was indeed dead. Mrs. Gardner’s sobs filled the room. A physician was hastily summoned; then Mrs. Smith, who looked like one dying, moaned feebly: “My master’s dread secret is known to the world at last! Oh, my poor boy, let me go to him! Those cruel ropes are cutting his flesh.” Through the open door she could see him lying on the floor bound hand and foot and raving wildly. Though he had injured her so cruelly, her heart yearned over him, and she held out her arms. “Oh, let me go to him, poor boy, for he has never been so bad as this before. He pushed me down the stairs when I tried to hold him back, but it is the first time he ever was cruel to me! He did not know what he was doing, my poor Percy! Oh, gentlemen, don’t be hard on him. I was his mother’s servant, and I’ve known him since he was a little boy. He was a sweet child, little Percy, only when those dreadful temper-fits came on. And they grew worse and worse as he grew older. Then, in his bright youth, when the girl he loved jilted him, he went melancholy-mad and tried to kill himself. “That was the beginning of those awful spells, and they thought it was from the drugs. And we tended him so carefully that no one ever knew anything. His mother bought this house and had that room prepared. He could always tell when these strange fits were coming on. His head would hurt and he would have fainting spells. Then he would come to us and we would fasten him in there and keep him from suicide until he got well again. For he always wanted to kill himself, though the doctor said his mood might change, and it would be some one else he wanted to kill. Oh, his dying mother left him to me. I promised--promised----” She choked again with blood, and fell back, struggling for breath. “Elizabeth!” came faintly from the other room. Her voice had penetrated his heart. It was a maniacal moan, infinitely pathetic. They wiped the blood from her mouth, and she raised herself up in bed.