f danger--the three women hastened from
the room. Jane's candle flared and went out in the draught from the
suddenly opened door, and in the smothering darkness they stumbled
pell-mell down the stairs.

A dim light burning in the hall showed them Mrs. Selwyn cowering against
her husband, her face hidden, sobbing hysterically, and in a moment Sara
had taken Dick's place, wrapping her strong arms about the shuddering
woman.

"Go on!" she whispered to him. "Go and get Tim down!"

He nodded, releasing himself with gentle force from his wife's clinging
fingers, which had closed upon his arm like a vise.

Immediately she lifted up her voice in a thin, querulous shriek--

"No! Dick, Dick--don't leave me! _Dick_"--

. . . And then it came--sped from that hovering Hate which hung
above--dropping soundlessly, implacable through the utter darkness of
the night and crashing into devilish life against a corner of the house.

Followed by a terrible flash and roar--a chaos of unimaginable sound.
It seemed as though the whole world had split into fragments and were
rocketing off into space; and, in quick succession, came the rumble of
falling beams and masonry, and the dense dust of disintegrated plaster
mingling with the fumes of high explosive.

Sara was conscious of being shot violently across the hall, and then
everything went out in illimitable black darkness.

CHAPTER XXXVI

"FROM SUDDEN DEATH----"

"Sara! Sara! For God's sake, open your eyes!"

The anguished tones pierced through the black curtain which had suddenly
cut away the outer world from Sara's consciousness, and she opened her
eyes obediently, to find herself looking straight into Garth's face bent
above her--a sickly white in the yellow glare of the hurricane lamp he
was holding.

"Are you hurt?" His voice came again insistently, sharp with hideous
fear.

She sat up, breathing rather fast.

"No," she said, as though surprised. "I'm not hurt--not the least bit."

With Garth's help, she struggled to her feet and stood upright--rather
shakily, it is true, but still able to accomplish the feat without much
difficulty. She began to laugh weakly--a little helplessly.

"I think--I think I've only had my wind knocked out," she said. Then,
as gradually the comprehension of events returned to her: "The others?
Who's hurt? Oh, Garth! Is any one--_killed_?"

"No, no one, thank God!" He reassured her hastily. His arm went
round her, and for a moment t