the cold stones on each side of her with nerveless,
quivering fingers. "There is--no bond between us!" she gasped forth
piteously. "There never--never has been!"

He flung back the words like a missile, unerring, blindingly direct. "No
bond between us! Good God! Would I follow you through death if there were
not?" And then suddenly, with an amazing change to tenderness that leapt
the void and enchained her where she stood:--"Toby--Toby, you little
ass--don't you know I've loved you from the moment _The Night Moth_
struck?"

There was no questioning the truth of those words. A great sob broke from
Toby, and the tension went out of her attitude. She stood for a few
seconds with her head raised, and on her face the unutterable rapture of
one who sees a vision. Then, with sharp anguish, "I can't come back!" she
cried like a frightened child. "I'm going to fall!"

Saltash straightened himself. His forehead was wet, but he did not pause
for a moment. "I'm coming to you," he said. "Keep as you are and I'll
give you a hand to hold!"

She obeyed him as one dazed into submission. Blindly she waited, till
with a monkey-like agility, he also had traversed that giddy ledge to
where she stood. His fingers met and gripped her own.

"Now," he said, "come with me and you are safe! You can't fall. My love
is holding you up."

She heard the laugh in his voice, and her panic died. Mutely she yielded
herself to him. By the strength of his will alone, she left the abyss
behind. But when he lifted her from the parapet back to safety, she cried
out as one whom fear catches by the throat, and fainted in his arms.

* * * * *

Out of a great darkness, the light dawned again for Toby. She opened her
eyes gasping to find that the scene had changed. She was lying upon
tiger-skins in Saltash's conical chamber, and he, the king of all her
dreams, was kneeling by her side.

That was the first thing that occurred to her--that he should kneel.

"Oh, don't! Oh, don't!" she said quickly. "I am not--not Maud."

He regarded her humorously, but the old derisive lines were wholly gone
from his dark face. His eyes held something that was unfamiliar,
something that made her quiver with a quick agitation that was not
distress.

"So I am only allowed to kneel to Maud!" he said.

She tried to meet his look and, failing, hid her face. "I--I know
you have always loved her," she murmured rather incoherently. "You
couldn't