would he have availed
himself of any other chance, however desperate, but there was none.
His hands were bound, his enemy was watchful and armed. Under such
circumstances there remained no hope. His last attempt had been made
boldly and vigorously, but it had failed. So he gave himself up to
despair.

The brougham was soon ready. Obed put Gualtier inside and got in
himself after him. Then they drove away. Lord Chetwynde was expected
that afternoon, and he might meet him on the road. He had made up his
mind, however, not to recognize him, but to let him learn the great
event from Zillah herself. After giving information to his sister as
to the time at which he expected to be back he drove off; and soon
the brougham with its occupants was moving swiftly onward out of the
villa park, down the descending road, and on toward Florence.

Obed rode inside along with Gualtier all the way. During that drive
his mind found full occupation for itself. The discovery and the
capture of this man made a startling revelation of several most
important yet utterly incomprehensible facts.

First, he recognized in his prisoner the man who had once visited him
in New York for the purpose of gaining information about Lady
Chetwynde. That information he had refused to give for certain
reasons of his own, and had very unceremoniously dismissed the man
that had sought it.

Secondly, this was the same man who in disguise had penetrated into
his villa with all the air and manner of a spy, and who, by thus
following him, showed that he must have been on his track for a long
time.

Thirdly, this very man had turned out to be the long-sought Gualtier
--the one who had betrayed Miss Lorton to a death from which she had
only been saved by a mere accident. This was the man who had won the
affections of Miss Lorton's friend, Hilda, who had induced her to
share his villainy and his crime; the man who had for so long a time
baffled the utmost efforts of the chief European police, yet who had
at last been captured by himself.

Now about this man there were circumstances which to Obed were
utterly incomprehensible.

It was conceivable that the man who had sought him in New York should
track him to Florence. He might have an interest in this affair of
Lady Chetwynde deep enough to inspire so pertinacious a search, so
that the difficulty did not consist in this. The true difficulty lay
in the fact that this man who had come to him first as the inquir