rd in finding their way up from the
depths. At last she said:

"I've made you unhappy. I've been so foolish. It has not been fun,
either, my husband. God knows it hasn't. You do not love me now."

He did not answer her at once and she shivered fearfully in his arms.
Then he kissed her brow gently.

"I _do_ love you, Agnes," he said intensely. "I will answer for my own
love if you can answer for yours. Are you the same Agnes that you were?
My Agnes?"

"Will you believe me?"

"Yes."

"I could lie to you--God knows I would lie to you."

"I--I would rather you lied to me than to---"

"I know. Don't say it. George," as she put her hands to his face and
whispered in all the fierceness of a desperate longing to convince him,
"I am the same Agnes. I am _your_ Agnes. I am! You _do_ believe me?"

He crushed her close to his breast and then patted her shoulder as a
father might have touched an erring child.

"That's all I ask of you," he said. She lay still and almost breathless
for a long time.

At last she spoke: "It is not wholly his fault, George. I was to blame.
I led him on. You understand?"

"Poor devil!" said he drily. "It's a way you have, dear."

The object of this gentle commiseration was staring with gloomy eyes at
the lights below. He was saying to himself, over and over again: "If I
can only make Drusie understand!"

Chase and Selim came down upon this little low-toned picture. The former
paused an instant and smiled joyously in the darkness.

"Come," was all he said. Without a word the three arose and started off
down the road. A few hundred feet farther on, Selim abruptly turned off
among the trees. They made their way slowly, cautiously to a point
scarcely a hundred feet from the wall and somewhat to the right of the
small gate. Here he left them and crept stealthily away. A few minutes
later he crept back to them, a soft hiss on his lips.

"Five men are near the gate," he whispered. "They watch so closely that
no one may go to rescue those who have disappeared. Friends are hidden
inside the wall, ready to open the gate at a signal. They have waited
with Neenah all night. And day is near, sahib."

"We must attack at once," said Chase. "We can take them by surprise. No
killing, mind you. They're not looking for anything to happen outside
the walls. It will be easy if we are careful. No shooting unless
necessary. If we should fail to surprise them, Selim and I will dash off
into the forest and