opose to do. I propose to escort you to a place of
safety, and to keep you there till my operations are concluded, and
the possibility of interference entirely removed. You spoke just now of
murder. What a crude notion that was of yours! It is only the amateur
who practises murder--'

'What about Reginald Dimmock?' she interjected quickly.

He paused gravely.

'Reginald Dimmock,' he repeated. 'I had imagined his was a case of
heart disease. Let me send you up some more chocolate. I'm sure you're
hungry.'

'I will starve before I touch your food,' she said.

'Gallant creature!' he murmured, and his eyes roved over her face. Her
superb, supercilious beauty overcame him. 'Ah!' he said, 'what a wife
you would make!' He approached nearer to her. 'You and I, Miss Racksole,
your beauty and wealth and my brains--we could conquer the world. Few
men are worthy of you, but I am one of the few. Listen! You might do
worse. Marry me. I am a great man; I shall be greater. I adore you.
Marry me, and I will save your life. All shall be well. I will begin
again. The past shall be as though there had been no past.'

'This is somewhat sudden--Jules,' she said with biting contempt.

'Did you expect me to be conventional?' he retorted. 'I love you.'

'Granted,' she said, for the sake of the argument. 'Then what will occur
to your present wife?'

'My present wife?'

'Yes, Miss Spencer, as she is called.'

'She told you I was her husband?'

'Incidentally she did.'

'She isn't.'

'Perhaps she isn't. But, nevertheless, I think I won't marry you.' Nella
stood like a statue of scorn before him.

He went still nearer to her. 'Give me a kiss, then; one kiss--I won't
ask for more; one kiss from those lips, and you shall go free. Men have
ruined themselves for a kiss. I will.'

'Coward!' she ejaculated.

'Coward!' he repeated. 'Coward, am I? Then I'll be a coward, and you
shall kiss me whether you will or not.'

He put a hand on her shoulder. As she shrank back from his lustrous
eyes, with an involuntary scream, a figure sprang out of the dinghy a
few feet away. With a single blow, neatly directed to Mr Jackson's ear,
Mr Jackson was stretched senseless on the deck. Prince Aribert of Posen
stood over him with a revolver. It was probably the greatest surprise of
Mr Jackson's whole life.

'Don't be alarmed,' said the Prince to Nella, 'my being here is the
simplest thing in the world, and I will explain it as soon as I have
finis