erable
question arising wherever he looked.

What strange influence could this man Hobart exercise over the girl? To
West's judgment he was in no way the sort of man to appeal to Natalie
Coolidge. He was of a low, cunning order, with some degree of outward
polish, to be sure, yet inherently tough, and exhibiting marks of a
birth-right which indelibly stamped him of a social class far below her
own. Surely, she could not love the fellow, yet unquestionably he
possessed a mysterious power over her, difficult to explain through any
other hypothesis. If West had not known the young woman under different
conditions, he might have accepted this theory, and dismissed the whole
matter from mind. But it was the haunting memory of that earlier Natalie
Coolidge, the mistress of Fairlawn, which would not permit his complete
surrender. She had seemed all that his dream of womanhood called for.
Unconsciously, he had given her his heart, and he could not tear the
remembrance from mind. There was something wrong, terribly wrong; what it
was he had no means of knowing, yet, there in the dark, he determined he
would know, would never be content until he learned the whole truth. All
his hope, all his future, depended on the answer.

Hobart and Turner were absent for some little while; the sound of their
voices ceased, but the distant flicker of the lantern enabled West to
trace their progress up the alley, and then back again. They returned in
no pleasant humour, convinced that their expected victim had escaped
safely, but made no further effort to search the yard. Hobart said enough
to make it plain that his immediate project was to disappear, leaving
Mike to his own devices. With this point settled the two tramped heavily
up the stairs, and disappeared within. West, confident at last, that the
way was left clear, wriggled out from his place of concealment behind the
barrel, and stood erect. He felt stronger now, and in less pain,
convinced that his injuries were in no degree serious. He could move his
limbs freely and his mind was active. The darkness was so intense he had
to grope his way forward, anxious to make no noise which might betray
his presence. No doubt the basement could be reached in some way from the
floor above, and any unusual sound below might easily attract attention.

In the intensity of the gloom, his sense of direction failed, taking him
somewhat further back before he finally located the exact position of
those o