tely.

"Yes," she said. "I will come."

There was a tap at the door, and Chester hurried across the room to
prevent the maid from entering.

"Yes," he said excitedly; "what is it?"

"If you please, sir, it is the police; two of them, and they say they
must see you directly."

"Great heavens!" cried Chester, wildly, as he turned and gazed at where
Marion had started to her feet and stood pale and ghastly, for she had
heard the words. "Too late--too late! Yes; I know. Marion, that
hound! that fiend! He is taken, and in his cowardly revenge he has sent
them here."

In the full belief that the police would be coming up to the room,
Chester ran to the door.

"Where are they?" he whispered sharply to the maid, who was wondering at
the undue excitement displayed.

"In the hall, sir."

Chester's mind was made up on the instant, and he turned to Isabel.

"Heaven bless you for this!" he cried passionately. "I cannot explain
now, only that it is a case of great emergency. Take Miss Clareborough
with you, and keep her until I write or come. I do not deserve this at
your hands, but your presence here is like that of some good angel. You
will take her home?"

"Yes," she said softly, as she avoided his eyes.

"Listen, then," he whispered anxiously.

"These people below have come in search of her, and she must not fall
into their hands. I will go and keep, them in conversation, while you
get her away at once."

"I will," replied Isabel, calmly.

"Heaven bless you!" he cried passionately, and then he turned to Marion,
who looked quite exhausted.

"Go with her," he said--"at once. You will be safe there until I come."

"No," she replied despairingly. "It would be better for you--for her--
that we never meet again."

He caught her hand in his.

"Refuse this, and I will not answer for the consequence," he whispered
angrily. "Remember you are mine."

He hurried out, trying to be perfectly calm, met the representatives of
the law in the hall, and signed to them to come into the
consulting-room, and closed the door.

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.

THE CLIMAX OF A MADNESS.

"One minute. Sit down while I attend to this."

The inspector took a chair, but his follower, evidently a plain clothes'
officer, remained standing by the door; while, as if bound to make a
memorandum of some important case, Chester took ink and paper and began
writing rapidly for a few minutes, listening intently the while for the