Queenie heard the terrible words, followed by a loud report, saw a wreath of blue smoke curling upward, and Leon Vinton fell like a log on the snowy path. With a terrible shudder she saw his life-blood spurting out, dyeing the pure snow with a terrible scarlet stain. Farmer Thorn looked down at his victim, spurned him with his foot, and replacing the pistol in his breast, walked rapidly away. At the same moment the front door opened hurriedly, and Mrs. Bowers ran out, followed by a servant. Both of them ran screaming down the path to the side of their master. CHAPTER XIX. Weakened and shocked by the terrible scene she had witnessed, Queenie hid her face in her hands and fell back on her sofa. She lay there trembling and agitated, and musing on the sudden end of the wicked Leon Vinton. Presently the door was pushed open and Mrs. Bowers entered in such high excitement that she forgot to lock the door behind her. "Oh!" she cried out, "did you hear the pistol shot? Leon Vinton is dead!" A sudden impulse decided Queenie to conceal her knowledge of the fact. She sprang up in apparent wild excitement. "Is it possible?" she cried. "I heard a pistol-shot a moment ago. Who killed him?" "I cannot tell you," said Mrs. Bowers. "I heard a shot, and ran to the window just in time to see a man going out of the gate. He had a wide hat on, and I couldn't make out his features." "You shall never learn his name from me," thought Queenie to herself, for her whole sympathies were with the wronged father of the poor, betrayed Jennie. "But there laid poor Mr. Vinton, stone dead, in the path," continued Mrs. Bowers, excitedly. "Look out of the window there, and you can see it all for yourself." Queenie glanced out of the window and drew back with a shudder. "Oh! it is horrible," she said. "What are you going to do?" "I'm going to send for the coroner," said Mrs. Bowers. "That's the proper thing to do. I must go right away and do it. Dear, dear, who was that murderous man, I'd like to know? I'd have followed after him, and, mayhap, caught him, only I was so flustrated I didn't know what to do first. The mean, murderous villain!" She bustled out so full of excitement that she forgot to lock her prisoner's door. Queenie started up full of joyful emotion. "Now is my chance!" she exclaimed, "Leon Vinton is dead, and Mrs. Bowers has no right to detain me. I will leave this dreadful place at once." She opened the wardrobe and took out a long waterproof cloak and hood, putting them on with trembling hands. Then she exchanged her thin shoes for thick walking boots, and doubled a dark-brown barege veil over her face. Thus equipped she opened the door and ran down the steps to the hall with her heart beating almost to suffocation. In the doorway she paused. Mrs. Bowers was standing in the path by the side of the dead man, and Queenie was afraid she would attempt to detain her.