She uttered a happy sigh.

"Ah!" she murmured in the soft ecstasy and boundless relief of the
moment, "how I have learned to love you during the fears and agonies
of this awful week."

"And I you," was the whispered answer. "Too deeply," he impetuously added
in louder tones, "to let any harm come to you now."

She smiled; but desperation fought with love in that smile. Gently
releasing herself, she cast another glance at Hazen, upon whose gray
and distorted countenance there had settled a great gloom, and
passionately exclaimed:

"Had law or love been able to interfere with the judgment of our Chief, I
should not have been driven into the herculean task of deceiving you and
the whole world as to my real identity." Then with slowly drooping head,
and the manner of one who has heard his doom pronounced, she hoarsely
whispered; "The death-mark was scrawled upon my door last night. This is
never done without the consent of the Chief. No one can save me now, not
even my own brother."

"False. I scrawled those lines," declared Ransom. "It was a test--"

"Which _I_ commanded you to make," put in Hazen. Then in fainter and less
strenuous tones, "She's right. Georgian Ransom is doomed; no one can save
her."

"False again!" This time it was Harper who interposed. "I can and will.
You forget that I know the name of your Chief. Conspiracy such as you
hint at is indictable in this country. I am a lawyer. I shall protect,
not only your sister, but her money."

The smile he received in return evinced no ordinary scorn.

"Try it," said he. Then with a laugh so low as to be almost inaudible,
yet so full of meaning that even Harper's cheek lost color, he calmly
declared: "No one knows the name of our Chief. Auchincloss is a member
and a valuable one--the only one whose name Georgian positively knows;
but he's but a unit in a thousand. You cannot reach the Head or even the
Heart of this great organization through him, and if you did and punished
it, the Cause would grow another head and you would be as far from
injuring us as you are now. Georgian is right. Not even I can save her
now." Then, with a steady look into each of their faces, he smiled again
and one and all shuddered. "But the Cause will go on," he cried in tones
ringing with enthusiasm. "Mankind will drop its shackles and we, we shall
have unriveted one of its chains. It is worth dying for, I, Alfred Hazen,
say it."

Slowly he sank back into his chair. The pallor