is heart bleeding itself
dry through the wound those words had made.

It was still pitch dark when they came to the ridge above the park.
Through the trees the lights in the chateau could be seen. Lady Agnes
opened her eyes and cried out in tremulous joy. A great wave of
exaltation swept over Hollingsworth Chase. _She_ was watching and
waiting there with the others!

"Dame Fortune is good to us," he said, quite irrelevantly. Selim
muttered the sacred word "Allah." Chase's trend of thought, whatever it
may have been, was ruthlessly checked. "That reminds me," he said
briskly, "we can't waste Allah's time in dawdling here. Luck has been
with us--and Allah, too--great is Allah! But we'll have to do some
skilful sneaking on our own hook, just the same. If the upper gate is
being watched--and I doubt it very much--we'll have a hard time getting
inside the walls, signal or no signal. The first thing for us to do is
to make everything nice and snug for our four friends here. You've
laboured well and faithfully," he said to the panting islanders, "and
I'm going to reward you. I'm going to set you free. But not yet. Don't
rejoice. First, we shall tie you securely to four stout trees just off
the road. Then we'll leave you to take a brief, much-needed rest. Lady
Deppingham, I fancy, can walk the rest of the way through the woods.
Just as soon as we are inside the walls, I'll find some way to let your
friends know that you are here. You can explain the situation to them
better than I can. Tell 'em that it might have been worse."

He and Selim promptly marched the bewildered islanders into the wood.
Bobby Browne, utterly exhausted, had thrown himself to the soft earth.
Lady Deppingham was standing, swaying but resolute, her gaze upon the
distant, friendly windows.

At last she turned to look at her husband, timorously, an appeal in her
eyes that the darkness hid. He was staring at her, a stark figure in the
night. After a long, tense moment of indecision, she held out her hands
and he sprang forward in time to catch her as she swayed toward him. She
was sobbing in his arms. Bobby Browne's heavy breathing ceased in that
instant, and he closed his ears against the sound that came to them.

Deppingham gently implored her to sit down with him and rest. Together
they walked a few paces farther away from their companion and sat down
by the roadside. For many minutes no word was spoken; neither could
whisper the words that were so ha