It may have been an hour--perhaps two of them--since Robin with Constance and her mother had passed him on the way to the Lodge, when suddenly Frank heard some one hurrying down the path. It was the rustle of skirts that he heard, and he knew that it was a woman running. Just at the little grove of birches she stopped and seemed to hesitate. In the silence of the place he could hear her breath come pantingly, as from one laboring under heavy excitement. Then there was a sort of sobbing moan, and a moment later a voice that he scarcely recognized as that of Edith Morrison, so full of wild anguish it was, called his name. He had already risen, and was at her side in an instant.
"What is it?" he demanded; "tell me everything--tell me quickly!"
"Oh," she wailed, "I knew you must be here. They couldn't find you, and I knew why. I knew you had been here, and had seen what I saw, and heard what I heard. Oh, you must go to her--you must go at once!"
She had seized his arm with both hands, shaking with a storm of emotion--of terror, it seemed--her eyes burning through the dark.
"When I saw that, I went mad," she raved on. "I saw everything through a black mist, and out of it the devil came and tempted me. He put the means in my hands to destroy my enemy, and I have done it--oh, I have done it! You said it was the Devil's Garden, and it is! Oh, it is his--I know it! I know it!"
The girl was fairly beside herself--almost incoherent--but there was enough in her words and fierce excitement to fill Frank with sudden apprehension.
"What is it you have done?" he demanded. "Tell me what you mean by the devil tempting you to destroy your enemy. What have you done?"
A wave of passion, anguish, remorse broke over her, and she clung to him heavily. She could not find voice at first. When she did, it had become a shuddering whisper.
"I have killed her!" she managed to gasp. "I have killed her! I did it with the Yellow Danger--you remember--the Yellow Danger--that day in the Devil's Garden--that poison one--that deadly one with the cup--there were some among those she brought to-night. She must have left them there by mistake. I knew them--I remembered that day--and, oh, I have been there since. But I was about to throw them away when the devil came from his garden and tempted me. He said no one could ever suspect or blame me. I put one of the deadly ones among those that went to her place at dinner. When it was too late I was sorry. I realized, all at once, that I was a murderer and must not live. So I ran down here to throw myself in the lake. Then I remembered that you were here, and that perhaps you could do something to save her. Oh, she doesn't know! She is happy up there, but she is doomed. You must help her! You must! Oh, I do not want to die a murderer! I cannot do that--I cannot!"