panther, and hurled himself into the darkness
of the archway that led to the inner hall.

Something dreadful was happening there, she knew not what; and her heart
stood still in terror while peal after peal of that awful laughter rang
through the pealing thunder.

Then came another flash of lighting, keen as the blade of a sword, and
she saw. There, outlined against the darkness of the archway, red-robed
and terrible, stood Violet. Her right hand was flung up above her head,
and in her grasp was a knife that she must have taken from the table.
She was laughing still with white teeth gleaming, but in her eyes shone
the glare of madness and the red, red lust of blood.

The picture flashed away and the thunder broke forth again, but the
fiendish laughter continued for seconds till suddenly it turned to a
piercing scream and ceased. Only the echoes of the thunder remained and
a dreadful sound of struggling on the further side of the archway,
together with a choking sound near at hand as of some animal striving
against restraint.

Olga stumbled blindly forward. "Nick! Nick! Where are you? What has
happened?" she cried, in an agony.

Instantly his voice came to her. "Here, child! Don't be scared! I'm
holding the dog."

She groped her way to him, nearly falling over Cork, who was dragging
against his hand.

The great dog turned to her, whining, and, reassured by her presence,
ceased to resist.

"That's better," said Nick, with relief. "Can you hold him?"

She slipped her hand inside his collar! "Nick! What has happened?" she
whispered, for her voice was gone.

Dimly she discerned figures in the inner hall, but there was no longer
any sound of struggling. And then quite suddenly Max came back through
the archway.

"Lend me a hand, Ratcliffe!" he said. "I'm bleeding like a pig."

CHAPTER XXIII

AS GOOD AS DEAD

So cool was his utterance, so perfectly free from agitation his
demeanour, that Olga wondered if she could have heard aright. Then she
saw him go to the table and prepare to remove his coat, and she knew
that there could be no mistake.

The frozen horror of the past few seconds fell from her, and strength
came in its place--the strength born of emergency. "I shall help you
better than Nick," she said.

"If you don't faint," said Max.

She spoke a reassuring word to Cork and let him go. He moved away at
once in uneasy search for his mistress, and she turned round to Max.
Nick was already hel