e.

"It's all right now, Mademoiselle. Whatever you think of me, you can
trust me to do my best for you now."

"Oh, I'm not afraid of you now," Agatha moaned in a muffled voice.
"Only I'm so puzzled by it all--and so tired!"

"'Twas a fearful strain, Mademoiselle. But I can make you a bed here,
so you can sleep."

Agatha shook her head. "I can sleep on the sand, just as well."

"I think, Mademoiselle, I'd better be going above and look for help
from the village, as soon as I've supplied the fire. I'll leave these
few matches, too, in case you need them."

"Yes, you'd better go, Hand; and wait a minute, until I think it out."
Agatha sat up and pressed her palm to her forehead, straining to put
her mind upon the problem at hand. "Go for a doctor first, Hand; then,
if you can, get some food--bread and meat; and, for pity's sake, a
cloak or long coat of some kind. Then find out where we are, what the
nearest town is, and if a telegraph station is near. And stay; have
you any money?"

"A little, Mademoiselle; between nine and ten dollars."

"That is good; it will serve for a little while. Please spend it for
me; I will pay you. As soon as we can get to a telegraph station I can
get more. Get the things, as I have said; and then arrange, if you
can, for a carriage and another man, besides yourself and the doctor,
to come down as near this point as possible. You two can carry
him"--she looked wistfully at James--"to the carriage, wherever it is
able to meet us. But you will need to spend money to get all these
things; especially if you get them to-night, as I hope you may."

"I will try, Mademoiselle." The ex-chauffeur stood hesitating,
however. At last, "I hate to leave you here alone, with only a sick
man, and night coming on," he said.

"You need not be afraid for me," replied Agatha coldly. Her nerves had
given way, now that the need for active exertion was past, and were
almost at the breaking point. It came back to her again, moreover, how
this man and another had made her a prisoner in the motor-car, and at
the moment she felt foolish in trusting to him for further help. It
came into her mind that he was only seeking an excuse to run away, in
fear of being arrested later. A second time she looked up into his
eyes with her serious, questioning gaze.

"I don't know why you were in the plot to do as you did--last Monday
afternoon," she said slowly; "but whatever it was, it was unworthy of
yo