will come with me to Scotland Yard--I believe that is the
place to go to. I want that man arrested before nightfall. Here are your
ten pounds."

"Oh," said Sabina--"I wish I'd known!"

"Do you mean that you would not have helped me?"

"I'm not sure, ma'am; I don't like the idea of shutting the poor man up
for ever and ever in a gaol."

"Perhaps you don't mind the idea of murder?" said Mrs. Vane
sarcastically. "Don't be a fool, Sabina! Think of the three hundred
pounds too! You shall have it all, I promise you; and I will content
myself with the satisfaction of seeing him once more where he deserves
to be. Now call Parker."

Sabina went back to the sitting-room, not daring to disobey. Her
reluctance, moreover, soon vanished as the thought of those three
hundred pounds took possession of her. She was absorbed in golden dreams
when Mrs. Vane rejoined her, and was quite prepared to do or say
whatever she was told.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Mrs. Vane left Parker at the hotel with a message for the General,
should he appear, that she was going to her dentist's and thence to her
brother's lodgings. But she and Sabina Meldreth went straight to
Scotland Yard and had an interview with one of the police authorities.

Mrs. Vane's statement was clear and concise. She was complimented on the
cleverness that she had displayed; and Sabina was shown a photograph of
Andrew Westwood taken while he was at Portland. She could not be quite
so certain that it was Mr. Dare as Flossy would have desired her to be;
but the evidence was on the whole so far conclusive, that it was
determined to arrest Mrs. Gunn's lodger on suspicion. If he could give a
satisfactory account of himself, and if he could not be identified, he
would of course have to be set free again; but it seemed possible, if
not probable, that Reuben Dare was the very man for whom the police had
searched so vainly and so long. A cab was summoned, and an inspector of
police as well as a detective in plain clothes and a constable politely
followed Sabina into it. Mrs. Vane thought it more becoming to her
position not to assist at the arrest. She therefore remained behind,
unable to resist the temptation of awaiting their return with the
prisoner.

She waited for nearly two hours. Then the cab came back again, and out
of it emerged two police-officers and Sabina; but no detective, and no
Reuben Dare. Flossy's heart beat quickly with a mixture of rage and
fear. Had she take