Have you betrayed me? Have you brought Benson
here as an enemy?"

Daisy did not answer her former lover. She continued to gaze at him
with an irony of expression that sent the hot blood mounting to his
head.

"Can't you speak?" he demanded. "Then, Benson, why don't you talk?"

"Because," replied Jack, "I am waiting for Miss Huston to say to you
all, or as little, as she cares to say."

"Speak, then!" commanded Millard, turning imperiously to the girl.

"And my command to you," retorted the girl, "is different. Silence!
Never again address me, you traitor to your Flag!"

Millard was swift to realize the fullness of the girl's contempt. He
knew that everything between them was over.

"Come, come, then, girl!" he uttered, harshly. "It is time for you to
be gone! Step to the cab and get away from here, for I would spare you
what is to follow--my reckoning with Benson!"

He clapped his hands. The door opened, and four men stepped out. Their
type was not hard to determine. They were of the scum of
humanity--ready for any desperate deed.

CHAPTER XXII

THE PART OF ABERCROMBIE, R.N.

"Come, girl, you must go!" commanded Millard, harshly.

"I will not," she replied, coldly, "until my escort is ready to go with
me."

"He will not go with you," replied Millard, significantly. "And you
must not remain. What is to be done here is no thing for a dainty woman
to see."

"Mr. Benson," appealed the girl, "will you enter the cab first?"

"If he does, the cab will not leave," sneered Millard.

All this while the four men who had just come from the house were
stealthily grouping themselves. Jack watched them alertly. He did not
intend to be taken unawares, yet he hesitated to draw his pistol while
Miss Huston was there.

"Go, girl!" Millard ordered again.

"I have told you, already, that I shall go only when Mr. Benson gives
the word and accompanies me," replied the girl, white but courageous.

"Then we won't waste more time," laughed the wretch, harshly. "Since
you will stay, then you must be a witness of what you have brought on
my worst foe! Close in, men--get him!"

As the men sprang to obey, and Jack dodged nimbly back, Daisy Huston
uttered a piercing scream. The next thing she did was wholly natural.
Under the intense strain of her feelings the girl fainted.

"Take her!" nodded Millard, to the driver, who was plainly one of the
desperate lot. "Take her from here as fast as you can."