ght adventure, and Mag Henderson, who with her baby
occupied a room in the guest-wing, under the Madam's immediate
supervision.

She listened acutely. Her bedroom door rattled a little in the draught
of another door which opened and closed. She heard an unmistakable
creaking of the back stairs that led to a hall behind her room and the
girls' rooms, and which also led to the guest-wing.

"It's Mag!" she thought.

In the morning, anxious and distressed, she hurried to consult Philip.
He shrugged. "I'm not surprised, but I honestly don't know how to advise
you, Miss Kate. I never wanted you to take her to Storm, but now that
she's there, I suppose only the devil himself would get her away from
you."

"It looks as if the devil were going to have a try at it," she
commented, grimly.

"Are you perfectly sure it was Mag?"

"No, I'm not. It was too dark to see her face, and she was wrapped in a
big cape.--Now that I come to think of it, it was the cape we always
keep hanging by the side door for whoever happens to be going out. None
of the negroes would dare to put that on. So it must have been Mag."

"At least we must be definitely sure before we say anything to her. It
is a delicate matter. Sometimes a lack of trust at the wrong moment.--Be
very sure, Miss Kate!"

"I'll watch to-night. Perhaps the poor little fool will try to slip off
again."

* * * * *

Midnight found the Madam seated at her dark window, dressed and fully
prepared for any emergency--except that she happened to be asleep. Black
coffee had not been sufficient to offset the treacherously soothing
effect of a rain-laden breeze full of soft earth-odors, that blew across
her eyelids. She might have slept there placidly till morning, had not a
clap of thunder awakened her with a start.

The night had become very tense and still. The trees seemed to hold
themselves rigid, as if they listened for something. Now and then,
lightning stabbed viciously through the dark. Beneath her the old house
creaked, bracing itself once more to meet the onslaught of its life-long
enemy, the wind. Far away across the plateau came a faint rushing sound,
that grew in volume rapidly. Once again the thunder boomed.

Kate rose, yawning. "No amorous adventures for Mag to-night, that's
certain! It's going to be the first big storm of the season. There's
bite as well as bark in that sky."

But at the moment, a flash of lightning showed her a sl