hance it?"

"I was as sure as I needed to be," Nelson Smith answered. "A moment after
I switched on the electricity in the room up there I heard a taxi drive
away. I turned off the light so I could look out. By flattening my nose
against the glass I could see that the place where those chaps had waited
was empty; but in case the taxi was only turning, and meant to pass the
house again, I lit the room once more, for realism.

"That's what kept me rather long--that, and waiting for the dragon to go.
Otherwise I should have been down before Ruthven Smith trapped me.

"For a second it looked as if the game of life was up. And then I found
out how much you meant to me. It was _you_ I thought of. It seemed
beastly hard luck to leave you fast in that old woman's clutches!"

Annesley put out her hand with a warm impulse. He took it, raising it to
his lips, and both were startled when the taxi stopped. They had arrived
at the Savoy: and though Annesley seemed to have lived through a lifetime
of emotion, just one hour and thirty minutes had passed since she and her
companion drove away from these bright revolving doors.

The foyer was as brilliant and crowded as when they left at half-past
ten. People were parting after supper; or they were lingering in the
restaurant beyond. Nobody paid the slightest attention to the newcomers,
and Annesley settled down unobtrusively in a corner, while her companion
went to scribble a line to the Countess de Santiago.

When he had finished, and sent up the letter, he did not return, and
again the girl had a few moments of suspense, thinking of the danger
which might not, after all, be over. Just as she had begun to be anxious,
however, she saw him coming with a wonderful woman.

Annesley could have laughed, remembering how he had said the Countess
would "mother" her. Any one less motherly than this Juno-like beauty in
flame-coloured chiffon over gold tissue it would be hard to imagine.

The Spanish South American Countess was of a camelia paleness, and had
almond-shaped dark eyes with brooding lashes under slender brows that
met. In contrast, her hair was of a flame colour vivid as her draperies,
and her lips were red.

At first glance Annesley thought that the dazzling creature could not be
more than thirty; but when the vision had come near enough to offer her
hand, without waiting for an introduction, a hardness about the handsome
face, a few lines about the eyes and mouth, and a full