"No! Stop! Stop!" she cried.
Everybody looked at her in surprise, Colonel Hampton no less than the
others. Stephen Hampton called out her name sharply.
"No! You shan't do this to me! You shan't! You're torturing me! you are
all devils!" she screamed. "Devils! _Devils!_"
"Myra!" her husband barked, stepping forward.
With a twist, she eluded him, dashing around the desk and pulling open a
drawer.
For an instant, she fumbled inside it, and when she brought her hand up,
she had Colonel Hampton's .45 automatic in it. She drew back the slide
and released it, loading the chamber.
Doctor Vehrner, the hypodermic in his hand, turned. Stephen Hampton
sprang at her, dropping his drink. And Albert, the prognathous
attendant, released Colonel Hampton and leaped at the woman with the
pistol, with the unthinking promptness of a dog whose master is in
danger.
Stephen Hampton was the closest to her; she shot him first, point-blank
in the chest. The heavy bullet knocked him backward against a small
table; he and it fell over together.
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