"This is my answer," he said, and precipitated himself with fresh fury
upon Marcus.
The younger man had expected the attack, and braced himself for it. He
caught the inventor by the arm that held the club, or other weapon. They
wrestled for its possession--the inventor with frenzy in every feature,
Marcus with fixed determination, and silently.
The weapon was now aloft--now below--now shifted in the twinkling of an
eye to the right, and now to the left. At one time the inventor seemed
to be on the point of securing it; at another, Marcus. Suddenly Pet saw
it whirl like a shillelah above her father's head, with a strange noise
like the quick winding of a clock. Then she heard a dull sound, as of
striking a board with a brick, and--she saw her father fall to the
floor. At the same moment, the light in the room went out, and all
was darkness.
The pent-up agony at last found utterance. She shrieked, and, instantly,
her eyes were open, and her limbs free. She jumped out of bed, and was
about to rush into the chamber of horrors, when she saw the bright light
of the gas yet shining through the crack beneath her door.
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