go--it was quite simple; but she had not had time to do so when,
from a room dividing the viridarium from the vestibule she heard first a
woman's shrill voice; then the deeper tones of a man; and hardly had they
exchanged a few sentences, when every sound was lost in the furious
barking of the hound, and immediately after a loud shriek of pain from a
woman fell upon her ear, and the noise of a heavy object falling to the
ground.

What had happened? It must be something portentous and terrible; of that
there could be no doubt; and ere long Paula's fears were justified. Out
from the room where the scene had taken place rushed Orion, and with him
the dog, across the grass-plot which was usually respected and cherished
as holy ground, towards the side of the house facing the river, which was
where he and all the family had their rooms.

"Now!" cried Paula, quickly leading the way.

She flew in breathless haste through the first room and into the
unguarded hall; but she had not reached the middle of it when she gave a
scream, for before her in the moonlight, lay a body, motionless, at full
length, on the hard, marble floor.

"Run, Hiram, fly!" she cried to her companion. "The door is
ajar--open--I can see it is."

She fell on her knees by the side of the lifeless form, raised the head,
and saw--the beautiful, deathlike face of the crazy Persian slave. She
felt her hand wet with the blood that had soaked the hapless girl's
thick, fair hair, and she shuddered; but she resisted her impulse of
horror and loathing, and perceiving some dark stains on the torn peplos
she pulled it aside and saw that the white bosom was bleeding from deep
wounds made in the tender flesh by the cruel fangs of the hound.

Paula's heart thrilled with indignation, grief and pity. He--he whom she
had only yesterday held to be the epitome of every manly
perfection--Orion, was guilty of so foul a deed! He, of whose
unflinching, dauntless courage she had heard so much, had fled like a
coward, and had left the victim to her fate--twice a victim to him!

But something must be done besides lamenting and raging, and wondering
how in one human soul there could be room for so much that was noble and
fine with so much that was shameful and cruel. She must save the girl,
she must seek help, for Mandane's bosom still faintly rose and fell under
Paula's tremulous fingers.

The freedman's brave heart would not allow him to fly to leave her with
the injured g