n from upstairs.

"Is there any one there?" it said. "Oh, please, is any one there?"

"Is that you, Ella?" Deede Dawson called back. "Come down here."

"I can't," she answered. "I'm fastened to a chair."

"I didn't hurt the young lady," Dunn interposed quickly. "I only
tied her up as gentle as I could to a chair so as to stop her from
interfering."

"Oh, that's it, is it?" said Deede Dawson, and seemed a little amused,
as though the thought of his stepdaughter's plight pleased him rather
than not. "Well, if she can't come down here, we'll go up there. Turn
round, my man, and go up the stairs and keep your hands over your head
all the time. I shan't hesitate to shoot if you don't, and I never
miss."

Dunn was not inclined to value his life at a very high price as he
turned and went awkwardly up the stairs, still holding his hands above
his head.

But he meant to save it if he could, for many things depended on it,
among them due punishment to be exacted for the crime he had discovered
this night; and also, perhaps, for the humiliation he was now enduring.

CHAPTER VIII. CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE

Up the stairs, across the landing, and down the passage opposite Dunn
went in silence, shepherded by the little man behind whose pistol was
still levelled and still steady.

His hands held high in the air, he pushed open with his knee the door
of the girl's room and entered, and she looked up as he did so with an
expression of pure astonishment at his attitude of upheld hands that
changed to one of comprehension and of faint amusement as Deede Dawson
followed, revolver in hand.

"Oh," she murmured. "Captivity captive, it seems."

At the fireplace Dunn turned and found her looking at him very intently,
while from the doorway Deede Dawson surveyed them both, for once his
eyes appearing to share in the smile that played about his lips as
though he found much satisfaction in what he saw.

"Well, Ella," he said. "You've been having adventures, it seems, but you
don't look too comfortable like that."

"Nor do I feel it," she retorted. "So please set me free."

"Yes, so I will," he answered, but he still hesitated, and Dunn had the
idea that he was pleased to see the girl like this, and would leave
her so if he could, and that he was wondering now if he could turn her
predicament to his own advantage in any way.

"Yes, I will," he said again. "Your mother--?"

"She hasn't wakened," Ella answered. "I don't think she has