urst of laughter came from the men.

This was too much for Mr. Nichol. This coarse abuse stung him cruelly.

"God's blood," he bellowed at the room; "take this vixen out and search
the place." And a torrent of oaths drove the crowd about the door out
into the passage again.

A couple of men took Mary by the fierce ringed hands of hers that still
twitched and clenched, and led her out; she spat insults over her
shoulders as she went. But she had held him in talk as she intended.

"Now then," roared Nichol again, "search, you dogs!"

He himself went outside too, and seeing the stairs stamped up them. He
was just in time to see the Tacitus settle down with crumpled pages;
stopped for a moment, bewildered, for it lay in the middle of the
passage; and then rushed at the open door on the left, dashed it open,
and found a little empty room, with a chair or two, and a table--but no
sign of the priest. It was like magic.

Then out he came once more, and went into Anthony's own room. The great
bed was on his right, the window opposite, the fireplace to the left, and
in the middle lay two sooty shoes. Instinctively he bent and touched
them, and found them warm; then he sprang to the door, still keeping his
face to the room, and shouted for help.

"He is here, he is here!" he cried. And a thunder of footsteps on the
stairs answered him.

* * * *

Meanwhile the men that held Mary followed the others along the passage,
but while the leaders went on and round into the lower corridor, the two
men-at-arms with their prisoner turned aside into the parlour that served
as an ante-chamber to the hall beyond, where they released her. Here,
though it was empty of people, all was in confusion; the table had been
overturned in the struggle that had raged along here between Lackington's
men, who had entered from the front door, and the servants of the house,
who had rushed in from their quarters at the first alarm and intercepted
them. One chair lay on its side, with its splintered carved arm beside
it. As Mary stood a moment looking about her, the door from the hall that
had been closed, again opened, and Isabel came through; and a man's voice
said:

"You must wait here, madam"; then the door closed behind her.

"Isabel," said Mary.

The two looked at one another a moment, but before either spoke again the
door again half-opened, and a voice began to speak, as if its owner still
held t