He waited for her on the bottom step of the stairs, the slight smile still on his face.
Panting breaths in the darkness of the alcove--a short, furious scuffle--he had wrested the revolver away from her, but in doing so had unguarded the precious blue-print--she snatched at it desperately, tearing most of it away, leaving only a corner in his hand.

He swore--tried to get it back--she jerked away.
Then suddenly a bright shaft of light split the darkness of the alcove stairs like a sword, a spot of brilliance centered on Fleming's face like the glare of a flashlight focused from above by an invisible hand.
For an instant it revealed him--his features distorted with fury--about to rush down the stairs again and attack the trembling girl at their foot.
A single shot rang out.

For a second, the fury on Fleming's face seemed to change to a strange look of bewilderment and surprise.
Then the shaft of light was extinguished as suddenly as the snuffing of a candle, and he crumpled forward to the foot of the stairs--struck--lay on his face in the darkness, just inside the double doors.
Dale gave a little whimpering cry of horror.
"Oh, no, no, no," she whispered from a dry throat, automatically stuffing her portion of the precious scrap of blue-print into the bosom of her dress.

She stood frozen, not daring to move, not daring even to reach down with her hand and touch the body of Fleming to see if he was dead or alive.
A murmur of excited voices sounded from the hall.

The door flew open, feet stumbled through the darkness--"The noise came from this room!" that was Anderson's voice--"Holy Virgin!" that must be Lizzie-- Even as Dale turned to face the assembled household, the house lights, extinguished since the storm, came on in full brilliance--revealing her to them, standing beside Fleming's body with Miss Cornelia's revolver between them.
She shuddered, seeing Fleming's arm flung out awkwardly by his side.
No living man could lie in such a posture.
"I didn't do it! I didn't do it!" she stammered, after a tense silence that followed the sudden reillumining of the lights.