ll talking in
English, as they had been doing all the time, by way of precaution
against prying ears. "But do not let us quarrel and say hard things to
each other. I thought _you_ would help me if anybody would." Her eyes
filled, and she hardly seemed able to go on. The sight softened Adrian!
who was as madly, passionately in love with her as ever. "Do help me,
Adrian. You are able if anybody is. I want to save his life for the
sake of what he has been to me. Listen. I never want to see or speak
with him again--only to save his life. Oh, it is horrible--horrible
that such things should be done! Help me, Adrian! It is only to save
his life, and you from murder."

Ah, she had come down now from her judgment seat. She was the pleader
now. Adrian, whose sombre eyes had never left her face throughout this
appeal, was conscious of the wave of a new hope surging through his
being.

"You only want to save his life? Never to see or speak with him again?"
he repeated.

"Yes--yet no. I must just see him to satisfy myself that he is really
alive and safe--but not to speak to him."

For fully a minute they stood there gazing into each other's face in the
dull light of the tent lantern. Then Adrian said:

"You are right, Aletta. I can help you. I can save his life. But"--
and his words were slow and deliberate, and full of meaning--"if I do
what is to be my reward?"

She understood, but she did not flinch.

"If you do--if you save his life, if you let him escape, I will marry
you, Adrian! That is what you wish, I suppose?"

"Great God, it is!" he answered fervently, his dark face flushing with
intense joy. "You will soon forget this Englishman, my darling--you,
whom I have loved ever since we were children. But--swear that you will
keep this compact, Aletta."

"I swear it," she answered, hardly recognising her own voice.

"I will keep my side. I will show you this Englishman alive and free,
and then you will marry me?"

"But how--how will you do it?"

"That is my affair--leave that to me. Kiss me, Aletta, to seal our
compact."

"No--no. Not here, not now," holding up a warning hand. "Do you not
see? The light throws our shadows on the tent. I am going now.
Remember, I trust to you. No--do not come with me. I prefer to be
alone."

It was only a hundred yards across to Gideon Roux' house, where Aletta
was to sleep. She had sacrificed herself to save the life of the man
who had faithle