her. She drew away, then
clasped his hand and kissed it; as she did so, she suddenly stiffened
and her hand tightened on his spasmodically.

Some one else had come into the hall and he heard another voice--a
woman's, which he recognized as that of the stenographer, Miss Davis.

"Where is he? Hugh! Hugh! What have you done to him? Mr. Santoine!
Mr. Santoine! where is he?"

The blind man straightened, holding his daughter to him; there was
anxiety, horror, love in the voice he heard; Harriet's perplexity was
great as his own. "Is that you, Miss Davis?" he inquired.

"Yes; yes," the girl repeated. "Where is--Hugh, Mr. Santoine?"

"You do not understand," the voice of a young man--anxious and strained
now, but of pleasing timbre--broke in on them.

"I'm afraid I don't," Santoine said quietly.

"She is Hugh's sister, Mr. Santoine--she is Edith Overton."

"Edith Overton? And who are you?"

"You do not know me. My name is Lawrence Hillward."

Santoine asked nothing more for the moment. His daughter had left his
side. He stood an instant listening to the confusion of question and
answer in the hall; then he opened the door into the library and held
it for the police chief to enter.

CHAPTER XXV

"IT'S ALL RIGHT, HUGH"--AT LAST

Eaton--he still, with the habit of five years of concealment, even
thought of himself by that name--awoke to full consciousness at eight
o'clock the next morning. He was in the room he had occupied before in
Santoine's house; the sunlight, reflected from the lake, was playing on
the ceiling. His wounds had been dressed; his body was comfortable and
without fever. He had indistinct memories of being carried, of people
bending over him, of being cared for; but of all else that had happened
since his capture he knew nothing.

He saw and recognized, against the lighted square of the window, a man
standing looking out at the lake.

"Lawrence," he said.

The man turned and came toward the bed. "Yes, Hugh."

Eaton raised himself excitedly upon his pillows. "Lawrence, that was
he--last night--in the study. It was Latron! I saw him! You'll
believe me, Lawrence--you at least will. They got away on a boat--they
must be followed--" With the first return of consciousness he had
taken up again that battle against circumstances which had been his
only thought for five years.

But now, suddenly he was aware that his sister was also in the room,
sitting upon the opposite