ey flew down the beach like the wind.

"Oh, Mrs. Gardiner--Sally!" cried Victor Lamont, in a voice apparently
husky with emotion, "the memory of this ride will be with me while life
lasts!"

Victor Lamont's voice died away in a hoarse whisper; the hand which
caught and held her own closed tighter over it, and the hoarse murmur of
the sea seemed further and further away.

Sally Gardiner seemed only conscious of one thing--that Victor Lamont
loved her.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

For a moment the words falling so passionately from the lips of the
handsome man sitting beside her, the spell of the moonlight, and the
murmur of the waves, seemed to lock her senses in a delicious dream. But
the dream lasted only a moment. In the next, she had recovered herself.

"Oh, Mr. Lamont, we must--we must get right out and walk back to the
hotel! What if any one should see us riding together? Jay would be sure
to hear of it, and there would be trouble in store for both of us."

"It is all in a life-time," he murmured. "Can you not be happy here with
me----"

But she broke away from his detaining hand in alarm. She had been guilty
of an imprudent flirtation; but she had meant nothing more. She had
drifted into this delusive friendship and companionship without so much
as bothering her pretty golden head about how it would end. Now she was
just beginning to see how foolish she had been--when this handsome
stranger could be nothing to her--nothing.

"We must not ride any further," she declared. "Give orders for the coach
to stop right here, Mr. Lamont."

"It is too late, dear lady," he gasped. "The horses are running away!
For God's sake, don't attempt to scream or to jump, or you will be
killed!"

With a wild sob of terror, Sally flung herself down on her knees, and
the lips that had never yet said, "God be praised," cried "God be
merciful!"

"Don't make such a confounded noise!" exclaimed Lamont, attempting to
lift her again to the seat beside him. "We won't get hurt if you only
keep quiet. The driver is doing his best to get control of the horses.
They can't keep up this mad pace much longer, and will be obliged to
stop from sheer exhaustion."

After what appeared to be an age to the terrified young woman crouching
there in such utter fright, the vehicle stopped short with a sharp thud
and a lurch forward that would have thrown Sally upon her face, had not
her companion reached forward and caught her.

"Well, driver," c