.

"One of no more account than the poor thing that danceth aloft in his
chains and for you as harmless."

And now she was beside me, a dark, wind-blown shape, and above the
howling tempest her voice reached me in passionate pleading:

"Sir--sir, will you aid one in sore danger and distress?"

"Yourself?" I questioned.

"Nay--indeed nay," she panted, "'tis Marjorie, my poor, poor brave
Marjorie. They stopped my coach--drunken men. I know not what came of
Gregory and I leapt out and escaped them in the dark, but
Marjorie--they carried her off--there is a light down the lane yonder.
I followed and saw--O sir, you will save Marjorie--you are a man--"

A hand was upon my ragged sleeve, a hand that gripped and shook at me
in desperate supplication--"You will save her from--from worse than
death? Speak--speak!"

"Lead on!" quoth I, answering this compelling voice. The griping
fingers slipped down and clasped my hand in the dark, and with never
another word she led me away unseeing and unseen until we came where we
were more sheltered from rain and wind; and now I took occasion to
notice that the hand that gripped mine so masterfully was small and
soft, so that what with this and her voice and speech I judged her one
of condition. But my curiosity went no further nor did I question her,
for in my world was no place for women. So she led me on at haste
despite the dark--like one that was sure of her whereabouts--until I
suddenly espied a dim light that shone out from the open lattice of
what I judged to be a small hedge-tavern. Here my companion halted
suddenly and pointed to the light.

"Go!" she whispered. "Go--nay, first take this!" and she thrust a
small pistol into my hand. "Haste!" she panted, "O haste--and I do
pray God shield and bless you." Then with never a word I left her and
strode towards the beam of light.

Being come nigh the casement I paused to cock the weapon and to glance
at the priming, then, creeping to the open lattice, I looked into the
room.

Three men scowled at each other across a table--desperate-looking
fellows, scarred and ill-featured, with clothes that smacked of the
sea; behind them in a corner crouched a maid, comely of seeming but
pallid of cheek and with cloak torn by rough hands, and, as she
crouched, her wide eyes stared at the dice-box that one of the men was
shaking vigorously--a tall, hairy fellow this, with great rings in his
ears; thus stood he rattling the dice a