o guide my footsteps when it was
seized with a kindly yet firm pressure, whilst a voice murmured
softly:

"Hush!"

"Who is it?" I whispered in response.

"It is I--Sarah!" the voice replied. "Everything is all right, but
Leah is unsuspecting. I am sure that if she suspected anything she
would not set foot outside the door."

"What shall we do?" I asked.

"Wait here a moment quietly," Sarah rejoined, speaking in a rapid
whisper, "under cover of this wall. Within the next few minutes Leah
will come out of the house. I have left my knitting upon a garden
chair, and I will ask her to run out and fetch it. That will be your
opportunity. The chair is in the angle of the wall, there," she added,
pointing to her right, "not three paces from where you are standing
now. Leah has a white dress on. She will have to stoop in order to
pick up the knitting. I have taken the precaution to entangle the wool
in the leg of the chair, so she will be some few seconds entirely at
your mercy. Have you a shawl?"

I had, of course, provided myself with one. A shawl is always a
necessary adjunct to such adventures. Breathlessly, silently, I
intimated to my kind accomplice that I would obey her behests and that
I was prepared for every eventuality. The next moment her hold upon my
hand relaxed, she gave another quickly-whispered "Hush!" and
disappeared into the night.

For a second or two after that my ear caught the soft sound of her
retreating footsteps, then nothing more. To say that I felt anxious
and ill at ease was but to put it mildly. I was face to face with an
adventure which might cost me at least five years' acute discomfort in
New Caledonia, but which might also bring me as rich a reward as could
befall any man of modest ambitions: a lovely wife and a comfortable
fortune. My whole life seemed to be hanging on a thread, and my
overwrought senses seemed almost to catch the sound of the
spinning-wheel of Fate weaving the web of my destiny.

A moment or two later I again caught the distinct sound of a gentle
footfall upon the soft earth. My eyes by now were somewhat accustomed
to the gloom. It was very dark, you understand; but through the
darkness I saw something white moving slowly toward me. Then my heart
thumped more furiously than ever before. I dared not breathe. I saw
the lovely Leah approaching, or, rather, I felt her approach, for it
was too dark to see. She moved in the direction which Sarah had
indicated to me as be