h Calvert Carter's strength of character to hold a
beautiful girl in his arms it would be inevitable that a certain sense
of ownership should subconsciously mingle with his thoughts of her. The
germ of love may be discovered in propinquity.

Be that as it may, as the lax slender form in his arms set his heart
beating wildly, he was tempted to crush her to his breast and to press
his lips savagely, yearningly, upon her tender mouth. Then, in reaction,
her helplessness appealed to him and aroused all the chivalry of his
nature. For less than the space of a sigh the primitive savage within
him had struggled with the gentleman,--and the gentleman had won. This
very conflict with himself, however, had increased though it had
chastened his desire. The more personal concern he now felt for her
recovery was but another expression of the primal instinct dignified by
discipline.

Meanwhile the touring car had been lurching forward with increasing
acceleration for more than a quarter of a mile, when, surprising them
agreeably, the cliff apparently opened, showing a narrow way cut through
its face, leading directly up to the castle. Before the distant portal a
group of horsemen could be seen making preparations for departure.

"Evidently a relief party. That riderless horse of hers must have
returned and started an alarm."

"They see us, sir," said Carrick, who had brought the machine to a stop.
"They're pulling up. It's a good thing, as there's barely room for me to
run the car up, without their crowding the road."

So saying he carefully swung into the narrow way and soon accomplished
the ascent. Passing under a portcullis as mediaeval as that of any
Rhenish castle, they stopped in an ancient, stone-flagged courtyard. On
every side, thronging about them, they met the vengeful, scowling eyes
of men in a frenzy of fear and hate, while a growling murmur of
resentment greeted their ears as the mob recognized their liege lady
apparently dead in the arms of a stranger. To their discipline as
soldiers, for these men wore uniforms similar to those seen already at
the inn, the two adventurers probably owed salvation from instant
dismemberment. In their faces Calvert Carter read the unreasoning fury
of their souls, experiencing his nearest approach to fear, yet he met
them eye for eye.

Standing apart, his handsome boyish head hung in shame, as if ostracized
for incompetency, stood a young fellow whom Carter recognized as the
escort