sy;
I am sure of that. And even at the time I thought he had done so I saved
him. After all he may be as bad as possible; but he is my father, and I
owe him a daughter's affection."

Giles would have argued this, but at the moment Anne started to her
feet. She heard the sound of approaching footsteps, and without a word
to Giles she flew over the low wall and darted across the park. He was
too astonished by this sudden departure to say a word. He had lost her
again. But he knew where she was after all.

CHAPTER XVIII

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

Giles left the churchyard slowly, with his brain in a whirl. Anne had
departed in hot haste, taking shelter in her hiding-place, and he dare
not follow unless he wanted it to be discovered. He never knew who it
was, whose footsteps had startled her away. When she left him he
remained for quite ten minutes where he was, in a kind of dazed
condition. The footsteps were not heard now. So intent had he been upon
Anne's flight, and on the amazing things she had told him, that he had
not noticed when they ceased. Then it occurred to him that they had
retreated--just as though a person had been listening and had hastily
gone away. But of this he could not be sure. All he did know was that
when he rounded the corner there was not a soul in sight. And nothing
remained but to go home.

Olga and her mother did not put in an appearance on this night, so Giles
had ample time to think over his meeting with Anne. He did not see how
he could help her, and the story she had related bewildered, instead of
enlightening him. After a time he rearranged the details, and concluded
that, in spite of all denial, her father was the guilty person, and the
crime had been committed for the sake of the Powell money.

"Whether the Scarlet Cross indicates a political society or is the
symbol of a thieves' association," said Giles to himself, "I can't say
until Steel is more certain of his ground. But this Alfred Denham, or
Walter Franklin, or whatever he chooses to call himself, is evidently a
bad lot. He has sufficient love for his daughter to keep his iniquities
from her, and that is why Anne is so much in the dark. I quite believe
that she thinks her father innocent, and saved him on the spur of the
moment. But he is guilty for all that."

And then Giles proceeded to work out the case as it presented itself to
him. Walter Franklin--as he found it most convenient to call him--was a
scoundrel who pre