ing the ensuing instant of silence she tugged at the ledge above
with a fresh, despairing effort, dragged herself up to the brink, felt
the pure night air upon her face. The next second, clutching her rope
in a mad grip, she let herself go, hurtling head first, then feet
first, down the tiled slope of the roof, then into space over the sheer
drop of the house's side.

Bumping, thumping, scraping her knuckles and shins, somehow, anyhow,
down she slid, reached the end of the swaying rope, hung for one
frightful moment kicking in mid-air, then dropped, plunk, like a lead
in water. She landed, shaken and stunned, but not injured, upon the
damp soft earth of a flower-bed. The rope dangled above her, only a
few feet away. For a whirling space she feared she was going to faint,
and with her whole will she fought off the engulfing fog, knowing she
must not stay here a minute. She was out of the house, true, but still
in imminent peril. At any moment Holliday might dash out and seize
her, and as she was now she had no resistance whatever, scarcely power
to scream.

Even as this thought matured in her brain, there came from within the
walls the drunken sound of steps careering down the upper flight of
stairs. Holliday! He might be slightly stunned, but he was recovered
sufficiently to come in pursuit. A second and he would reach the door,
only a few yards away from where she huddled. Quick--where could she
hide?

Struggling to her feet she staggered across the little strip of garden
and out the gate. If only there were someone in sight, anyone she
could appeal to for protection! But no, for once the Route de Grasse
stretched for a hundred yards in both directions empty as a desert.
Turning blindly to the left she ran crazily, swaying from weakness,
past the next two villas. At the gate of the third house she stopped,
afraid to venture farther. Inside the garden a low, square-cut hedge
offered a hope of shelter, if she could reach it in time. Already
behind her she heard the doctor's door flung open, saw a bar of light
stream into the dark street.

Like a shot partridge she dropped to the ground and wormed her way on
her stomach through the gateway into the shadow of the hedge, crept
close, lay still, afraid to breathe. Less than twenty yards away loud
steps resounded on the flagstones. They came in her direction.

CHAPTER XXX

For a short space Esther believed herself lost. If Holliday found her,
w