a." Bubbles entered hesitatingly, a note in
his hand.

One glance at the superscription, and Barbara ripped open the envelope.
She read the note and her brows contracted with pain. "Read
that, father."

Dr. Ferris read:

DEAREST BARBS:

I can't help breaking my silence to say I love you with my
whole heart and soul. Only tell me that you are safe and
sound in your father's house. I want much to know that, for I
am on the brink of a great, a dangerous, and I think a noble
venture.

WILMOT.

"What did I tell you!" she exclaimed. "Who brought this, Bubbles?"

"Nobody--a messenger-boy."

"Barbara," said her father, "write that you are safe at home. I'll tell
Lichtenstein what has happened. He's our best advice. Where is Mr.
Lichtenstein, Bubbles?"

"In his room, sir, writing."

Dr. Ferris left hurriedly, and Bubbles, gnawed by unsatisfied curiosity,
stood first on one foot and then on the other while Barbara wrote to
Wilmot. Somehow it was a very difficult note to write, for she felt sure
that it would not be read by Wilmot's eyes alone, and she didn't wish by
a syllable further to incite the legless man against his prisoner. So at
last she merely wrote that she was with her father at Clovelly. What she
wanted to write was that her love for him had grown and grown until she
was sure of it.

After Bubbles had gone with the note she sat for a long time without
moving, silent and white.

When her father returned, bringing Lichtenstein, he, too, was white. "I
am going to town at once," he said. "God willing, I shall have only good
news for you."

Barbara turned to Lichtenstein. "You've thought out something?"

He nodded gravely.

[Illustration: "Read that, father"]

XLV

"My treasure! My ownest own!"

Rose cowered from the cold malice in the legless man's voice, and from
the unearthly subdued excitement in his eyes.

"Sit there opposite me. Don't be afraid. Things are coming my way.
To-morrow I shall have a pair of legs. Think of that! Are you
thinking of it?"

She nodded.

The legless man wiped his mouth with the palm of his hand. "I told him,"
he said, "that she was a prisoner in this house. He said he would give
me his legs if I would let her go free. He wrote a note asking if she
was safe and sound. I sent it out to her place where she was all the
time, and of course she answered that she was safe and sound."

He chuckled, and his agate eyes appeare