epping out to the
groom, and showing him the torn envelope. Miles, promptly obeying his
instructions, declared that he knew nothing about it, and rode away.

Iris descended the stairs, and joined Mrs. Lewson in the hall before
she had closed the door. The housekeeper at once produced Arthur's
letter.

"It's on my mind, Miss," she said, "to write an answer, and say
something to Mr. Arthur which will persuade him to take care of
himself, on his way back to the farm. The difficulty is, how am I to
express it? You would be doing a kind thing if you would give me a word
of advice."

Iris willingly complied. A second note, from the anxious housekeeper,
might help the effect of the few lines which Lord Harry had written.

Arthur's letter informed Iris that he had arranged to return at three
o'clock. Lord Harry's question to the groom, and the man's reply,
instantly recurred to her memory: "Are there any strangers at
Rathco?"--"Two new men at work in the grounds." Arriving at the same
conclusion which had already occurred to Lord Harry, Iris advised the
housekeeper, in writing to Arthur, to entreat him to change the hour,
secretly, at which he left his friend's house on the next day. Warmly
approving of this idea, Mrs. Lewson hurried into the parlour to write
her letter. "Don't go to bed yet, Miss," she said; "I want you to read
it before I send it away the first thing to-morrow morning."

Left alone in the hall, with the door open before her, Iris looked out
on the night, thinking.

The lives of the two men in whom she was interested--in widely
different ways--were now both threatened; and the imminent danger, at
that moment, was the danger of Lord Harry. He was an outlaw whose
character would not bear investigation; but, to give him his due, there
was no risk which he was not ready to confront for Arthur's sake. If he
was still recklessly lingering, on the watch for assassins in the
dangerous neighbourhood of the farm, who but herself possessed the
influence which would prevail on him to leave the place? She had joined
Mrs. Lewson at the door with that conviction in her mind. In another
instant, she was out of the house, and beginning her search in the
dark.

Iris made the round of the building; sometimes feeling her way in
obscure places; sometimes calling to Lord Harry cautiously by his name.
No living creature appeared; no sound of a movement disturbed the
stillness of the night. The discovery of his absence, whic