iend,

"VICTORIA RAY."

There was no room for any anger against the girl in Stephen's heart. He
was furious, but not with her. And he did not know with whom to be
angry. There was some one--there must be some one--who had persuaded her
to take this step in the dark, and this secret person deserved all his
anger and more. To persuade a young girl to turn from the only friends
she had who could protect her, was a crime. Stephen could imagine no
good purpose to be served by mystery, and he could imagine many bad
ones. The very thought of the best among them made him physically sick.
There was a throat somewhere in the world which his fingers were
tingling to choke; and he did not know where, or whose it was. It made
his head ache with a rush of beating blood not to know. And realizing
suddenly, with a shock like a blow in the face, the violence of his
desire to punish some person unknown, he saw how intimate a place the
girl had in his heart. The longing to protect her, to save her from harm
or treachery, was so intense as to give pain. He felt as if a lasso had
been thrown round his body, pressing his lungs, roping his arms to his
sides, holding him helpless; and for a moment the sensation was so
powerful that he was conscious of a severe effort, as if to break away
from the spell of a hypnotist.

It was only for a moment that he stood still, though a thousand thoughts
ran through his head, as in a dream--as in the dreams of last night,
which had seemed so interminable.

The thing to do was to find out at once what had become of Victoria,
whom she had seen, who had enticed her to leave the hotel. It would not
take long to find out these things. At most she could not have been gone
more than thirteen or fourteen hours.

At first, in his impatience, he forgot Nevill. In two or three minutes
he had finished dressing, and was ready to start out alone when the
thought of his friend flashed into his mind. He knew that Nevill Caird,
acquainted as he was with Algiers, would be able to suggest things that
he might not think of unaided. It would be better that they two should
set to work together, even though it might mean a delay of a few minutes
in the beginning.

He put Victoria's letter in his pocket, meaning to show it to Nevill as
the quickest way of explaining what had happened and what he wanted to
do; but before he had got to his friend's door, he knew that he