in the half
shadow, neither Merode nor Lanisterre could see that one hand was lost
in the folds of her skirt.

"Ceddie, darling, let Miss Lorne be able to tell mummie that her little
man was a hero; that he died, as heroes always die, without a fear or a
weakening to the very last. I'll stand by you, precious; I'll hold your
hand; and, when the time comes----"

It came then! The gateless archway was reached at last, and the thing
she had been planning all along now became possible. With one sudden
push she sent the boy reeling down the incline into the dry
water-course, flashed round sharply, and before Merode really knew how
the thing had happened, she was standing with her back to the arch and a
revolver in her levelled hand.

"Throw up your arms--throw them up at once, or, as God hears me, I'll
shoot!" she cried. "Run, Ceddie, run, baby! He shan't follow you. I'll
kill him if he tries!"

"You idiot!" began Merode, and made a lurch toward her. But the pistol
barked and something white-hot zig-zagged along his arm and bit like a
flame into his shoulder.

"Up with your hands--up with them!" she said in a voice that shook with
excitement as he howled out and made a reeling backward step. "Next time
it will be the head I aim at, not the arm!" Then, lifting up her voice
in one loud shriek that made the echoes bound, she called with all her
strength: "Help, somebody--for God's sake help! Scream, Ceddie--scream!
Help! Help!"

And lo! as she called, as if a miracle had been wrought, out of the
darkness an answering voice called back to her, and the wild, swift
notes of a motor horn bleated along the lonely road.

"I'm coming--I--Cleek!" that voice rang out. "Hold your own--hold it to
the last, Miss Lorne, and God help the man who lays a finger on you!"

"Mr. Cleek! Mr. Cleek, oh, thank God!" she flung back with all the
rapture a human voice could contain. "Come on, come on! I've got
him--got that man Merode, and the boy is safe, the boy is safe! Come on!
come on! come on!"

"We're a-comin', miss, you gamble on that and the lightnin's a fool to
us!" shouted Dollops in reply. "Let her have it, guv'ner! Bust the
bloomin' tank. Give her her head; give her her feet; give her her
blessed merry-thought if she wants it! Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!"

And then, just then, when she most needed her strength and her courage,
Ailsa's evaporated. The reaction came, and, with the despairing cries of
Merode and Lanisterre ringing in