erself first. If it were only Monck, then her fancy had indeed played
her false and no one should know it. If it were any one else, it would
be time enough then to return and raise the alarm.

So, reasoning with herself, seeking to reassure herself, crying shame on
her fear, she stepped noiselessly forth into the verandah and slipped,
silent as that shadow had been, through the intervening space of
darkness to the open window of Monck's room.

She reached it, was blinded for a moment by the light that poured
through it, then, recovering, peered in.

A man, dressed in pyjamas, stood facing her, so close to her that he
seemed to be in the act of stepping forth. She recognized him in a
second. It was Monck,--but Monck as she never before had seen him, Monck
with eyes alight with fever and lips drawn back like the lips of a
snarling animal. In his right hand he gripped a revolver.

He saw her as suddenly as she saw him, and a rapid change crossed his
face. He reached out and caught her by the shoulder.

"Come in! Come in!" he said, his words rushing over each other in a
confused jumble utterly unlike his usual incisive speech. "You're safe
in here. I'll shoot the brute if he dares to come near you again."

She saw that he was not himself. The awful fire in his eyes alone would
have told her that. But words and action so bewildered her that she
yielded to the compelling grip. In a moment she was in the room, and he
was closing and shuttering the window with fevered haste.

She stood and watched him, a cold sensation beginning to creep about her
heart. When he turned round to her, she saw that he was smiling, a
fierce, triumphant smile.

He threw down the revolver, and as he did so, she found her voice.
"Captain Monck, what does that man want? What--what is he doing?"

He stood looking at her with that dreadful smile about his lips and the
red fire leaping, leaping in his eyes. "Can't you guess what he wants?"
he said. "He wants--you."

"Me?" She gazed back at him astounded. "But why--why? Does he want to
get money out of me? Where has he gone?"

Monck laughed, a low, terrible laugh. "Never mind where he has gone!
I've frightened him off, and I'll shoot him--I'll shoot him--if he comes
back! You're mine now--not his. You were right to come to me, quite
right. I was just coming to you. But this is better. No one can come
between us now. I know how to protect my wife."

He reached out his hands to her as he ended.