f you somehow until
you got that hurt look out of your face. I know it was rather ridiculous
for an utter stranger to presume so far, but when I saw that the sleuths
were out after you, and when the knowledge of your whereabouts was put
into my hands without the seeking, I wouldn't have been a man if I
hadn't come and offered my services. I'm not a very great lawyer, nor
even a very rising one, as your Miss Carson seems to think, but I'm a
man with a soul to protect a woman who is in danger, and if that's you,
I'm at your service. If not, you've only to say so and I'll take the
next train home and keep my mouth shut!"

He took his watch out and looked at it hastily, although he had not the
slightest idea what it registered, nor what time the next train for home
left. He looked very tall and strong and commanding as he stood in his
dignity waiting for her answer, and Betty looked up like a little child
and trusted him.

"Oh! Please forgive me!" she cried. "I've been so frightened ever since
Bob came after me. I couldn't think you had come for any good, because I
didn't know any one in the world who would want to help me."

"Certainly!" said Warren Reyburn with a lump in his throat, sitting down
quickly to hide his emotion. "Please consider me a friend, and command
me."

"Thank you," said Betty taking a deep breath and trying to crowd back
the tears. "I'm afraid there isn't any way to help me, but I'm glad to
have a friend, and I'm sorry I was so rude."

"You weren't rude, and that was a perfectly natural conclusion from my
blundering beginning," he protested, looking at the adorable waves of
hair that framed her soft cheeks. "But there is always a way to help
people when they are in trouble, and I'm here to find out what it is. Do
you think you could trust me enough to tell me what it's all about? Miss
Carson didn't seem to know much or else she didn't feel free to say."

"I didn't tell her much," said Betty, lifting her sea-blue eyes. "She
was a stranger, too, you know."

"Well, she's a mighty good friend of yours, I'll say, and she's acted
in a very wise manner. She took more precautions than an old detective
would have done. She told me only that some one was trying to make you
marry a man you did not wish to marry. Is that correct?"

Betty shivered involuntarily and a wave of color went over her white
face.

"It sounds queer," she said, "as if I hadn't any character or force
myself, but you don't understan