ended, but of the true motive I was, and am still,
entirely ignorant. Their motives are always hidden ones."

"They endeavoured to get from me another thousand pounds," I
exclaimed.

"It is well that you did not give it to them. The result would have
been just the same. They intended that you should die, fearing lest
you should inform the police."

"And you were outside the bank with Forbes when he cashed my cheque!"
I remarked in slow tones.

"I know," she answered hoarsely. "I know that you must believe me to
be their associate, perhaps their accomplice. Ah! well. Judge me, Mr.
Biddulph, as you will. I have no defence. Only recollect that I warned
you to go into hiding--to efface yourself--and you would not heed. You
believed that I only spoke wildly--perhaps that I was merely an
hysterical girl, making all sorts of unfounded assertions."

"I believed, nay, I knew, Miss Pennington, that you were my friend.
You admitted in Gardone that you were friendless, and I offered you
the friendship of one who, I hope, is an honest man."

"Ah! thank you!" she cried, taking my hand warmly in hers. "You have
been so very generous, Mr. Biddulph, that I can only thank you from
the bottom of my heart. It is true an attempt was made upon you, but
you fortunately escaped, even though they secured a thousand pounds of
your money. Yet, had you taken my advice and disappeared, they would
soon have given up the chase."

"Tell me," I urged in deep earnestness, "others have been entrapped in
that dark house--have they not? That mechanical chair--that devilish
invention--was not constructed for me alone."

She did not answer, but I regarded her silence as an affirmative
response.

"Your friends at least seem highly dangerous persons," I said,
smiling. "I've been undecided, since discovering that my grave was
already prepared, whether to go to Scotland Yard and reveal the whole
game."

"No!" she cried in quick apprehension. "No, don't do that. It could
serve no end, and would only implicate certain innocent
persons--myself included."

"But how could you be implicated?"

"Was I not at the bank when the cheque was cashed?"

"Yes. Why were you there?" I asked.

But she only excused herself from replying to my question.

"Ah!" she cried wildly a moment later, clutching my arm convulsively,
"you do not know my horrible position--you cannot dream what I have
suffered, or how much I have sacrificed."

I saw that she was now terri