there had also collapsed barricading the only
other outlet.

In the midst of his anxieties he had to soothe the girl's fears. Joyce
was shivering with terror and nearly speechless.

"Pull yourself together," he said shortly. "It is a devilish
catastrophe, but we must face it. Just as well we are not killed!" He
endeavoured to unclasp her clinging arms, but she only clung the closer.

"Oh, I am so frightened!--don't leave me!" she whimpered.

"I am not going to leave you," he said reassuringly, "but I must take a
good look around." Releasing the rug from beneath a weight of _debris_,
he induced her to sit down while he made a careful survey of the
conditions of their prison, for that it undoubtedly was. They were as
completely shut out from the outer world and as helpless as prisoners in
a dungeon. Both rooms were isolated from the rest of the building; both
were partially roofless and without means of exit.

Gad!--what a commotion there would be in the Station when it was
discovered that they had not returned! Dalton wished with all his heart
that he had left his car on the high road and not brought it into the
wood. Who would think of looking for it there?

He was partly comforted by the thought of the wheel-marks left in the
dust, but this source of hope was cut off when the rain began to descend
later in the night.

In the meantime he had to make the best of the situation and not allow
Mrs. Meredith to fret.

"You have to thank a special Providence interested in your fate that you
are not buried alive," he told her cheerfully.

"And so have you," she said solemnly.

"Providence doesn't usually bother much about me; relations have long
been strained. Possibly I have been preserved for your sake," he
laughed.

"How can you talk in that irreverent way!" she said reproachfully.

"Sorry, if it offends you."

But Joyce fell to weeping. Was it possible that they would ever be
found?--they would die of starvation--and what about her baby?

Dalton had much ado to allay all her fears. When it was discovered that
they were missing, did she suppose that a stone would be left unturned
to trace them? She was to cheer up and show how brave she could be.

"I am not like Honor Bright," she sobbed. "I cannot face such a horrible
prospect as a night spent in this ghastly place all among snakes and
creeping things!"

The mention of Honor seemed to silence the doctor completely. For some
time he was moody and depresse