ost-haste to
the place, but found on his arrival only ruins and ashes. He believed
that Emma and Dolly had had time to escape to safety; but while he was
searching the grounds for some sign of them he saw in the starlight a
man hiding in a broken turret.

He drew his sword and advanced. As the figure moved into the light he
rushed forward, flung himself upon him and clutched his throat.

"Villain!" he cried in a terrible voice, "dead and buried as all men
supposed, at last, at last I have you! You, Rudge, slayer of my brother
and of his faithful servant! Double murderer and monster, I arrest you
in the name of God!"

Bound and fettered in his carriage, Haredale took Rudge back to London
and had him locked in Newgate Prison.

IV

BARNABY PROSPERS AT LAST

Haredale searched vainly next day for Emma and Dolly Varden. He could
not believe they had lost their lives in the burning building, yet he
was filled with anxiety because of their disappearance. Could he have
known what had happened he would have been even more fearful.

Simon Tappertit had seen his chance at last to win for himself the
lovely Dolly, who had scorned him when he was an apprentice of the
locksmith. He had bribed Hugh and the hangman to aid him. While the mob
was occupied at the front of the house this precious pair had entered
from the back, seized the two girls and put them into a coach.

This they guarded at a distance till the burning was done; then, with
Tappertit on the box and surrounded by his ruffians, the coach was
driven into the city.

Emma had spent the day in the fear that her uncle had been killed with
other Catholics in London, and at this new and surpassing fright she had
fainted. Dolly, though no less concerned, had fought her captors
bravely, though vainly. Often in that long ride she wished that Joe, her
vanished lover, were there to rescue her as he had rescued her once from
Maypole Hugh.

She had determined when she reached the London streets to scream as
loudly as she could for help; but before they came to the city Hugh
climbed into the carriage and sat between them, threatening to choke
either if she made a noise.

In this wise they were driven to a miserable cottage, and in the dirty
apartment to which they were taken Dolly threw herself upon the
unconscious Emma and wept pitifully, unmindful of the jeers of Hugh and
of the hangman.

When Tappertit entered the room suddenly, Dolly, not knowing his part in
the p