ike," he said. "When I heard
you in the darkness it startled me for a moment, and I drew my pistol."

It seemed to him that her fingers clutched deeper and more convulsively
into his arm.

"You have seen no one else?" she asked.

Again he was prompted to keep his secret.

"Is it possible that any one else is awake and roaming about at this
hour?" he laughed. "I was just returning to my room to go to bed,
Josephine. I thought that you had forgotten me. And Jean--where is he?"

"We hadn't forgotten you," shivered Josephine. "But unexpected things
have happened since we came to Adare House to-night. I was on my way to
you. And Jean is back in the forest. Listen!"

From perhaps half a mile away there came the howl of a dog, and
scarcely had that sound died away when there followed it the
full-throated voice of the pack whose silence Philip had wondered at. A
strange cry broke from Josephine.

"They are coming!" she almost sobbed. "Quick, Philip! My last hope of
saving you is gone, and now you must be good to me--if you care at
all!" She seized him by the hand and half ran with him to the door
through which they had entered a short time before. In the great room
she threw off her hood and the long fur cape that covered her, and then
Philip saw that she had not dressed for the night and the storm. She
had on a thin, shimmering dress of white, and her hair was coiled in
loose golden masses about her head. On her breast, just below her
white, bare throat, she wore a single red rose. It did not seem
remarkable that she should be wearing a rose. To him the wonderful
thing was that the rose, the clinging beauty of her dress, the glowing
softness of her hair had been for him, and that something unexpected
had taken her out into the night. Before he could speak she led him
swiftly through the hall beyond, and did not pause until they had
entered through another door and stood in the room which he knew was
her room. In a glance he took in its exquisite femininity. Here, too,
the bed was set behind curtains, and the curtains were closely drawn.

She had faced him now, standing a few steps away. She was deathly
white, but her eyes had never met his more unflinchingly or more
beautiful. Something in her attitude restrained him from approaching
nearer. He looked at her, and waited. When she spoke her voice was low
and calm. He knew that at last she had come to the hour of her greatest
fight, and in that moment he was more unnerv