"I did not
know him, but the way he eyed the water leaping and boiling in a
yellow flood beneath was not the way of a curious man like myself,
but of one who was meditating some desperate deed. He was handsome
and well dressed, but he looked a miserable wretch and was in a
state of such complete self-absorption that he did not notice me,
though I had stopped not five feet from his side. I expected to
see him throw himself over, but instead of that, he suddenly
raised his head and, gazing straight before him, not at the heavy
current, but at some vision in his own mind, broke forth in these
words, spoken as I had never heard words spoken before - "
Here the speaker's stuttering got the better of him and the
district attorney had time to say:
"What were these words? Speak them slowly; we have all the time
there is."
Instantly the man plucked up heart and, eying us all impressively,
was able to say:
"They were these: 'She must die! she must die!' No name, but just
the one phrase twice repeated, 'She must die!' This startled me,
and hardly knowing whether to lay hands on him, or to turn about
and run, I was moving slowly away, when he drew his arms from the
rail, like this, and, still staring into space, added, in the same
hard and determined voice, this one word more, 'To-night!' ; and,
wheeling about, passed me with one blank and wholly unconscious
look and betook himself toward the city.
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