o men watched her opportunity, got behind, flung her
arms about the young man's neck, and he was dragged heavily to the
floor, where, as he lay half stunned, he saw Adela gazing at him with
her brows knit, and then, without a word of protest, she hurried from
the room.

Mr Barclay heaved himself up, and tried to rise; but one of his
adversaries sat upon his chest while the other bound him hand and foot,
an attempt at shouting for help being met by a pocket-handkerchief
thrust into his mouth.

A minute later, as Mr Barclay lay staring wildly, the rough woman, whom
he recalled now as one of the servants, and who had hurried from the
room, returned, helping Adela to support a pallid-looking man, whose
hands, face, and rough working clothes were daubed with clayey soil.

"Confound you! why didn't you bring down the brandy?" he said
harshly.--"Gently, girls, gently. That's better. I'm half crushed.--
Who's that?"

"Visitor," said one of Mr Barclay's captors sourly. "What's to be
done?"

Mr Barclay looked wildly from one to the other, asking himself whether
all this was some dream. Who were these men? Where the elderly Misses
Mimpriss? And what was the meaning of Adela Mimpriss being on such
terms with the injured man, who looked as if he had been working in some
mine?

Their eyes met once, but she turned hers away directly, and held a glass
of brandy to the injured man's lips.

"That's better," he said. "I can talk now. I thought I was going to be
smothered once.--Well, lads, the game's up."

"Why?" said one of the others sharply.

"Because it is. You won't catch me there again if I know it; and here's
private inquiry at work from over the way."

"Hold your tongue!" said the first man of the party. "There; he can't
help himself now. You watch him, Bell; and if he moves, give warning."

The rough woman seated herself beside Mr Barclay and watched him
fiercely. The two men crossed over to their companion; while Adela,
still looking cold and angry, with brow wrinkled up, drew back to stand
against the table and listen.

The men spoke in a low tone; but Mr Barclay caught a word now and then,
from which he gathered that, while the man who had in some way been hurt
was for giving up, the other two angrily declared that a short time
would finish it now, and that they would go on with it at all hazards.

"And what will you do with him?" said the injured man grimly.

Mr Barclay could not help looking sha