sight of it in the woman's clenched hand,
and with a smart and unexpected blow on her wrist forced her fingers to
open and release that which they held. "Here it is--will you take it? I
can look after her all right."

"No--but just see what the address is, will you?" Major Carstairs had
regained his self-control, and now stood quiet, alert, cool, as though
on parade. "May as well know who was her chosen victim this time."

"Oh, my old friend Carey--you know, the Vicar of Littlefield." Anstice
tossed the envelope on to a chair out of reach. "He was the first one
honoured, I believe, and possibly was to have been the last!"

All this time the woman had stood silent, her black eyes snapping, her
breast heaving stormily. Now she turned on Anstice fiercely and poured
out a stream of vituperative Italian which conveyed little or nothing to
his mind. Seeing that she made no impression she redoubled her efforts,
and finally her voice rose to a scream.

"I say, better shut her up, sir, or Mrs. Carstairs will hear!" Anstice
glanced anxiously towards the door and Major Carstairs nodded.

"Yes. We don't want the whole house about our ears." He turned to the
woman who now stood sullenly silent in his grasp; though if looks could
kill there would certainly have been a practice for sale in Littlefield
on the morrow. "Now see here, Tochatti, you've been fairly
cornered--caught--and you will have to pay the penalty. In the meantime
I shall lock you in your room until the morning, and I warn you it is
useless trying to escape."

A noise in the doorway cut him short; and turning hastily round Anstice
beheld Chloe Carstairs standing there, the light of the candle she
carried casting queer flickering shadows across her pale face, in which
the blue eyes gleamed more brightly than ever before.

"Chloe!" In his surprise Major Carstairs released the woman; and with a
bound she was across the room, pouring out another wild flood of
protestations, in which the words "_il dottore_" and "_la bambina_"
occurred over and over again. Higher and higher rose her voice, more
shrill and hysterical her outpourings, and Anstice's professional
instinct warned him that such abnormal excitement must end in
disaster--though of the nature of that ending he had at the moment no
conception.

Seeing, however, that the woman, while exhausting herself, was also
distressing her mistress, he moved forward with the intention of warning
Tochatti she was endanger