ver
it, McIntyre remaining uppermost. His other hand was on the alchemist's
throat, and it might have fared ill with him had Robert not climbed
through the window and dragged his father off from him. With the aid
of Haw, he pinned the old man down, and passed a long cravat around his
arms. It was terrible to look at him, for his face was convulsed, his
eyes bulging from his head, and his lips white with foam.

Haw leaned against the glass table panting, with his hand to his side.

"You here, Robert?" he gasped. "Is it not horrible? How did you come?"

"I followed him. I heard him go out."

"He would have robbed me. And he would have murdered me. But he is
mad--stark, staring mad!"

There could be no doubt of it. Old McIntyre was sitting up now, and
burst suddenly into a hoarse peal of laughter, rocking himself backwards
and forwards, and looking up at them with little twinkling, cunning
eyes. It was clear to both of them that his mind, weakened by long
brooding over the one idea, had now at last become that of a monomaniac.
His horrid causeless mirth was more terrible even than his fury.

"What shall we do with him?" asked Haw. "We cannot take him back to
Elmdene. It would be a terrible shock to Laura."

"We could have doctors to certify in the morning. Could we not keep him
here until then? If we take him back, some one will meet us, and there
will be a scandal."

"I know. We will take him to one of the padded rooms, where he can
neither hurt himself nor anyone else. I am somewhat shaken myself. But I
am better now. Do you take one arm, and I will take the other."

Half-leading and half-dragging him they managed between them to convey
the old gunmaker away from the scene of his disaster, and to lodge him
for the night in a place of safety. At five in the morning Robert had
started in the gig to make the medical arrangements, while Raffles Haw
paced his palatial house with a troubled face and a sad heart.

CHAPTER XIV. THE SPREAD OF THE BLIGHT.

It may be that Laura did not look upon the removal of her father as an
unmixed misfortune. Nothing was said to her as to the manner of the old
man's seizure, but Robert informed her at breakfast that he had thought
it best, acting under medical advice, to place him for a time under
some restraint. She had herself frequently remarked upon the growing
eccentricity of his manner, so that the announcement could have been
no great surprise to her. It is certain th