if you should go down
the ladder a few rounds, my dear, you might be as lucky. But take my
advice, if you _won't_ marry Hollingsworth Chase, don't let him come to
Paris."

The Princess Genevra lifted her face instantly, a startled expression in
her eyes.

"Agnes, you forget yourself!"

"My dear," murmured Lady Agnes sleepily, "forgive me, but I have such a
shockingly absent mind." She was asleep a moment later.

In the meantime, Bobby Browne, disdaining all commands and entreaties,
refused to be put to bed until he had related the story of their capture
and the subsequent events that made the night memorable. He talked
rapidly, feverishly, as if every particle of energy was necessary to the
task of justifying himself in some measure for the night's mishap. He
sat with his rigid arm about his wife's shoulders. Drusilla was stroking
one of his hands in a half-conscious manner, her eyes staring past his
face toward the dark forest from which he had come. Mr. Britt was
ordering brandy and wine for his trembling client.

"After all," said Browne, hoarse with nervousness, "there is some good
to be derived from our experiences, hard as it may be to believe. I have
found out the means by which Rasula intends to destroy every living
creature in the chateau." He made this statement at the close of the
brief, spasmodic recital covering the events of the night. Every one
drew nearer. Chase threw off his spell of languidness and looked hard at
the speaker. "Rasula coolly asked me, at one of our resting places, if
there had been any symptoms of poisoning among us. I mentioned Pong and
the servants. The devil laughed gleefully in my face and told me that it
was but the beginning. I tell you. Chase, we can't escape the diabolical
scheme he has arranged. We are all to be poisoned--I don't see how we
can avoid it if we stay here much longer. It is to be a case of slow
death by the most insidious scheme of poisoning imaginable, or, on the
other hand, death by starvation and thirst. The water that comes to us
from the springs up there in the hills is to be poisoned by those
devils."

There were exclamations of unbelief, followed by the sharp realisation
that he was, after all, pronouncing doom upon each and every one of
those who listened.

"Rasula knows that we have no means of securing water except from the
springs. Several days ago his men dumped a great quantity of some sort
of poison into the stream--a poison that is used in