. I'm handling this affair as a business proposition, so don't
be feared, Mem. If there are enemies seeking you, there's friends on
the road too.... Now, you'll have had your dinner, but you'd maybe like
a little dessert."

He spread before them a huge box of chocolates, the best that Mearns
Street could produce, a box of candied fruits, and another of salted
almonds. Then from his hideously overcrowded pockets he took another
box, which he offered rather shyly. "That's some powder for your
complexion. They tell me that ladies find it useful whiles."

The girl's strained face watched him at first in mystification, and
then broke slowly into a smile. Youth came back into it, the smile
changed to a laugh, a low rippling laugh like far-away bells. She took
both his hands.

"You are kind," she said, "you are kind and brave. You are a de-ar."

And then she kissed him.

Now, as far as Dickson could remember, no one had ever kissed him
except his wife. The light touch of her lips on his forehead was like
the pressing of an electric button which explodes some powerful charge
and alters the face of a countryside. He blushed scarlet; then he
wanted to cry; then he wanted to sing. An immense exhilaration seized
him, and I am certain that if at that moment the serried ranks of
Bolshevy had appeared in the doorway, Dickson would have hurled himself
upon them with a joyful shout.

Cousin Eugenie was earnestly eating chocolates, but Saskia had other
business.

"You will hold the house?" she asked.

"Please God, yes," said Heritage. "I look at it this way. The time is
very near when your three gaolers expect the others, their masters.
They have not troubled you in the past two days as they threatened,
because it was not worth while. But they won't want to let you out of
their sight in the final hours, so they will almost certainly come here
to be on the spot. Our object is to keep them out and confuse their
plans. Somewhere in this neighbourhood, probably very near, is the man
you fear most. If we nonplus the three watchers, they'll have to
revise their policy, and that means a delay, and every hour's delay is
a gain. Mr. McCunn has found out that the factor Loudon is in the
plot, and he has purchase enough, it seems, to blanket for a time any
appeal to the law. But Mr. McCunn has taken steps to circumvent him,
and in twenty-four hours we should have help here."

"I do not want the help of your law," the gir