sual, was the first to recover herself.

"Will you take us to Three Towers now?" she asked in a voice that she
hardly recognized as her own. "Do you know the way?"

"Yes," he answered, adding moodily, as though to himself: "Hugo Billings
ought to know the way."

Billie caught at the name quickly, for she had been wondering what this
strange person called himself.

"Hugo Billings!" she said eagerly. "Is that your name?"

The man had started on ahead of them through the dark woods, but now he
stopped and looked back and Billie could almost feel his eyes boring into
her.

"Did I say so?" he asked sharply, then just as quickly turned away and
started on again.

"Goodness, I guess he must be a crazy criminal," thought Billie
plaintively, as she and her chums followed their leader, stumbling on
over rocks and roots that sometimes bruised their ankles painfully. "I
suppose there are some people that are both. Anyway, he must be a
criminal, or he wouldn't have been so mad about my knowing his name."

The rest of that strange journey seemed interminable. There were times
when the girls were sure the man who called himself Hugo Billings was not
taking them toward Three Towers Hall at all. It seemed impossible that
they could have wandered such a long way into the woods.

Then suddenly their feet struck a hard-beaten path and they almost cried
aloud with relief. For they recognized the path and knew that the open
road was not far off. Once on the open road, they could find their way
alone.

Abruptly the man in front stopped and turned to face them. Once more the
girls' hearts misgave them. Was he going to make trouble after all? Why
didn't he go on?

And then the man spoke.

"I won't go any farther with you," he said, and there was something in
his manner of speaking that made them see again in imagination the tired
slump of his shoulders, the wild, haunted look in his eyes. "I don't like
the road. But you can find it easily from here. Then turn to your right.
Three Towers is hardly half a mile up the road. Good night."

He turned with abruptness and started back the way they had come. But
impulsively Billie ran to him, calling to him to stop. Yet when he did
stop and turned to look at her she had not the slightest idea in the
world what she had intended to say--if indeed she had really intended to
say anything.

"I--I just wanted to thank you," she stammered, adding, with a swift
little feeling of pity for this