and then----

"The window in that room! It is the one by which Barney entered! It must
be the one by which the wretch fled with Inza!"

Back into the room he had just left he leaped. Two bounds carried him to
the window, against which brushed the branch of the old willow tree.

He looked out.

"There they are!"

The exultant words came in a panting whisper from his lips as he saw
some dark figures on the ground beneath the tree. He was sure he saw a
female form among them, and his ears did not deceive him, for he heard
at last a smothered appeal for help.

Then two other forms rushed out of the shadows and fell upon the men
beneath the tree, striking right and left!

There was a short, fierce struggle, a woman's shriek, the death groan of
a stricken man, a pistol shot, and scattering forms.

Without pausing to measure the distance to the ground, Frank sprang over
the window sill and dropped.

CHAPTER XXIV.

END OF THE SEARCH.

Like a cat, Frank alighted on his feet, and he was ready for anything
the moment he struck the ground.

There was no longer any fighting beneath the tree. The struggling mass
had melted to two dark figures, one of which was stretched on the
ground, while the other bent over it.

Frank sprang forward and caught the kneeling one by the shoulder.

"What has become of her?" he demanded, fiercely.

The man looked up, astonished.

It was Colonel La Salle Vallier!

"Yo', sah?" he exclaimed.

"You?" cried Frank.

Then the boy recovered, again demanding:

"What has become of Miss Burrage? She was here a moment ago."

The colonel looked around in a dazed way, slowly saying:

"Yes, sah, she was here, fo' Mistah Raymon' heard her voice, and he
rushed in to save her."

"Raymond? Where is he?"

"Here, sah."

The colonel motioned toward the silent form on the ground, and Frank
bent forward to peer into the white, ghastly face.

It was, indeed, Rolf Raymond.

"Dead?" fluttered Frank.

"Dead!" replied Colonel Vallier.

"He was killed in the struggle?"

"He was stabbed at the ver' start, sah. The knife must have struck his
heart."

"Merciful goodness!" gasped the boy, horrified. "And how came he here?"

"We were searching fo' Manuel Mazaro, sah. Mistah Raymon' did not trus'
the rascal, and he believed Mazaro might know something about Miss
Burrage. Mazaro is ready fo' anything, and he knew big money would be
offered fo' the recovery of the young lady, so he must