ejected air a yard
behind her captor. In this order they walked till they arrived at the
door of the Maples Inn, neither having uttered a single word to the
other. There Miss Craik halted abruptly. "Go to your room," she
muttered. "I'm ashamed of you. Sneaking out at night to meet a strange
man! No kitchen-wench could have behaved worse."

Winifred had no answer to that taunt. She could not explain her motives.
Indeed, she would have failed lamentably had she attempted it. All she
knew was that life had suddenly turned topsy-turvy. She distrusted her
aunt, the woman to whom she seemed to owe duty and respect, and was
inclined to trust a young man whom she had met three times in all. But
she was gentle and soft-hearted. Perhaps, if this Mr. Rex Carshaw, with
his earnest eyes and wheedling voice, could have a talk with "aunty,"
his queer suspicions--so oddly borne out by events--might be dissipated.

"I'm sorry if I seem to have done wrong," she said, laying a timid hand
on Rachel Craik's arm. "If you would only tell me a little, dear. Why
have we left New York? Why--"

"Do you want to see me in jail?" came the harsh whisper.

"No. Oh, no. But--"

"Obey me, then! Remain in your room till I send for you. I'm in danger,
and you, you foolish girl, are actually in league with my enemies. Go!"

Winifred sped through the porch, and hied her to a window in her room on
the first floor which commanded a view of the main street. She could see
neither Carshaw nor Aunt Rachel, the one having determined to lie low
for a few hours, and the other being hidden from sight already as she
hastened through the rain to the small inn where Voles and Mick the Wolf
were located.

These worthies were out. The proprietor said they had hired a car and
gone to Bridgeport. Miss Craik could only wait, and she sat in the
lobby, prim and quiet, the picture of resignation, not betraying by a
look or gesture the passions of anger, apprehension, and impatience
which raged in her breast.

Voles did not come. An hour passed; eight struck, then nine. Once the
word "carousing"! passed Miss Rachel's lips with an intense bitterness;
but, on the whole, she sat with a stiff back, patient as stone.

Then after ten there came the hum and whir of an automobile driven at
high speed through the rain-sodden main street. It stopped outside the
inn. A minute later the gallant body of Voles entered, cigar in his
mouth, and a look of much champagne in his eyes.