ped the maid's
arm.

"Keep quiet, and answer just what we ask you!" she said. "Who is in the
bluff?"

"Mr. Grant," said the girl, with a gasp. "But don't ask me anything. Send
him away. They'll kill him. Oh, you are hurting me!"

Flora Schuyler shook her. "How did he come there?"

"I took Miss Torrance's letter, and wrote the rest of it. I didn't know
they meant to do him any harm, but they made me write. I had to--he said
he would marry me."

The maid writhed in an agony of fear, but she stood still shivering when
Hetty turned towards her with a blanched face that emphasized the ominous
glow in her dark eyes.

"You wicked woman!" she said. "How dare you tell me that?"

"I mean Mr. Clavering. Oh----!"

The maid stopped abruptly, for Flora Schuyler drove her towards the door.
"Go and undo your work," she said. "Slip down at the back of the bluff."

"I daren't--I tried," and the girl quivered in Miss Schuyler's grasp. "If
I could have warned him I would not have told you; but Joe saw me, and I
was afraid. I told him to come at nine."

It was evident that she was capable of doing very little just then, and
Flora Schuyler drew her out into the corridor.

"Go straight to your room and stay there," she said, and closing the door,
glanced at Hetty. "It is quite simple. This woman has taken your
note-paper and written Larry. He is in the bluff now, and I think she is
right. Your friends mean to make him prisoner or shoot him."

"Stop, and go away," said Hetty hoarsely. "I am going to him."

Flora Schuyler placed her back to the door, and raised her hand. "No," she
said, very quietly. "It would be better if I went in place of you. Sit
down, and don't lose your head, Hetty!"

Hetty seized her arm. "You can't--how could I let you? Larry belongs to
me. Let me go. Every minute is worth ever so much."

"There are twenty of them yet. He has come too early," said Flora
Schuyler, with a glance at the clock. "Any way, you must understand what
you are going to do. It was Clavering arranged this, but your father knew
what he was doing and I think he knows everything. If you leave this house
to-night, Hetty, everybody will know you warned Larry, and it will make a
great difference to you. It will gain you the dislike of all your friends
and place a barrier between you and your father which, I think, will never
be taken away again!"

Hetty laughed a very bitter laugh, and then grew suddenly quiet.

"Stand aside, Flo," sh