rse for Bayne. No one else was within view. Though
between his teeth he muttered his distaste for the devoir that should
bring him to her side, and the solicitude he was constrained to show, he
leaped from the veranda and started down the ravine to her assistance, to
"make his manners," as he said sarcastically to himself. But when he had
come to the little rustic bridge and, glancing up, saw that she had not
yet risen, he began to run, and before he reached her, climbing the
ascent with athletic agility, he called out to ask if the fall had hurt
her.

"I don't know," she faltered, and when he was at her side she looked up
at him with a pale and quivering face.

"Try to stand," he urged, as he leaned down and took her arm. "Let me
lift you. There! How did it happen?"

"My ankle turned," she replied, rising with effort and standing
unsteadily, despite his support.

"Does it pain you?" he queried with polite solicitude, looking down at
the dainty low-cut gray shoe. "Bear your weight on it."

She essayed the experiment. "No," she barely whispered; "it is all
right."

He fixed upon her a look of questioning amazement, as she still held
trembling to his arm. "What is the matter, then?"

"There is somebody in the hotel."

He gave a hasty glance upward from under the stiff brim of his hat.
"Hardly likely--but I'll examine and see."

He was about to start off when she tightened her clutch on his arm.

"No, no," she pleaded. "Don't leave me! I don't know why--but I can't
stand. I can't walk."

"Did you really hear something?" he asked sceptically.

The light note of satire stung her pride. "Oh, I _saw_ them, and they saw
me," she protested. "I saw three men, and they all ran as I came into the
dining-room."

He broke into a short laugh. "Got them on the run, did you? Not very
formidable they were, you must admit. Shadows, I fancy. There is a large
mirror on the blank side of the dining-room opposite the door. Don't you
suppose it possible that you saw only your own moving reflection?"

Her pride was roused. The pulse of anger began to tint her face with a
dull crimson. "I should imagine I could distinguish my own reflection
from three men--rough-looking men with slouched hats, all running and
looking backward over their shoulders."

It had been a conscious effort to nerve herself for this protest in
defence of her poise and capacity, but at the mere recollection of the
scene she had conjured up anew she fell t