Another cord had snapped. “Repent! Repent!” cried the madman. “One more, and it is over!” Commander Stangate felt as if it were all some extraordinary dream--some monstrous nightmare. Could it be possible that he, after all his escapes of death in warfare, was now, in the heart of peaceful England, at the mercy of a homicidal lunatic, and that his dear girl, the one being whom he would shield from the very shadow of danger, was helpless before this horrible man? All his energy and manhood rose up in him for one last effort. “Here, we won’t be killed like sheep in the shambles!” he cried, throwing himself against the wooden wall of the lift and kicking with all his force. “Come on, boys! Kick it! Beat it! It’s only matchboarding, and it is giving. Smash it down! Well done! Once more all together! There she goes! Now for the side! Out with it! Splendid!” First the back and then the side of the little compartment had been knocked out, and the splinters dropped down into the abyss. Barnes danced upon his girder, his hammer in the air. “Strive not!” he shrieked. “It avails not. The day is surely come.” “It’s not two feet from the side girder,” cried the officer. “Get across! Quick! Quick! All of you. I’ll hold this devil off!” He had seized a stout stick from the commercial traveller and faced the madman, daring him to spring across. “Your turn now, my friend!” he hissed. “Come on, hammer and all! I’m ready for you.” Above him he heard another snap, and the frail platform began to rock. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that his companions were all safe upon the side girder. A strange line of terrified castaways they appeared as they clung in an ungainly row to the trellis-work of steel. But their feet were on the iron support. With two quick steps and a spring he was at their side. At the same instant the murderer, hammer in hand, jumped the gap. They had one vision of him there--a vision which will haunt their dreams--the convulsed face, the blazing eyes, the wind-tossed raven locks. For a moment he balanced himself upon the swaying platform. The next, with a rending crash, he and it were gone. There was a long silence and then, far down, the thud and clatter of a mighty fall. * * * * * With white faces, the forlorn group clung to the cold steel bars and gazed down into the terrible abyss. It was the Commander who broke the silence. “They’ll send for us now. It’s all safe,” he cried, wiping his brow. “But, by Jove, it was a close call!”