Sikes climbs to the roof and looks over the edge; the tide is out and there is no water in the ditch. The growing crowd cheers over the frustration of the killer's obvious intention. An old gentleman proclaims an award of fifty pounds to whoever takes Sikes alive. The house is broken into from the front, and there is a frantic rush of spectators back to that side.
Sikes determines to lower himself from the house top, gambling on the chance of getting away under the protection of darkness and confusion. He ties one end of the rope around a chimney and, holding his knife, is about to put his arms through the loop he has made. At that instant, he glances behind him and screeches, "The eyes again!" He loses his balance with the noose around his neck; a drop of thirty-five feet relieves the hangman of his task.
Bates, seeing the body swinging past the small window, calls to be released. Sikes's dog, which has been hiding on the roof, jumps for its master's shoulders but misses and is killed on a stone in the ditch below.
