d unprotected. If it was true,
as the terrified Sorez had feared, that the priest, whoever this
mysterious and unscrupulous person might be, had returned to the
assault, there certainly was good cause to fear for the safety of the
girl. A man so fanatically inspired as to be willing to commit murder
for the sake of an idol must be half mad. The danger was that the
girl, in the belief which quite evidently now possessed her--that this
golden thing held the key to her father's whereabouts--might attempt
to protect or conceal it. He stumbled up the dark stairs and fell flat
against the door. It was closed. He tried the knob; the door was
locked. For a moment Wilson could not believe. It was as though in a
second he had found himself thrust utterly out of the house. His first
suspicion flew to Sorez, but he put this from his mind instantly.
There was no acting possible in that man's condition; he was too weak
to get down the stairs. But this was no common thief who had done
this, for a thief, once realizing a household is awakened, thinks of
nothing further but flight. It must then be no other than the priest
returned to the quest of his idol.

Wilson threw his weight against the door, but this was no garden gate
to give before such blows. At the end of a half dozen attempts, he
paused, bruised and dizzy. It seemed impossible to force the bolt.
Yet no sooner had he reached this conclusion than the necessity
became compelling; the bolt _must_ be forced. At such moments one's
emotions are so intensified that, if there be any hidden passion, it
is instantly brought to light. With the impelling need of reaching the
girl's side--a frantic need out of proportion to any normal
relationship between them--Wilson realized partly the instinct which
had governed him from the moment he had first caught sight of her
features in the rain. If at this stage it could not properly be called
love, it was at least an obsessing passion with all love's attributes.
As he paused there in blinding fury at being baffled by this senseless
wooden door, he saw her as he had seen the faces between the stars,
looking down at him tenderly and trustingly. A lump rose to his throat
and his heart grew big within him. There was nothing now--no motive,
no ambition, no influence--which could ever control him until after
this new great need was satisfied. All this came over him in a
flash--he saw as one sees an entire landscape by a single stroke of
lightning. T