a scowl.

"It's a bullet in yer skin that I'd give yez this blessed night if I
dare take my own way," he mutters savagely.

Very slowly Brian Beresford walks back to Donaghmore. He is not so calm
now, not so sure of Honor's safety. His fears are rising with every
step he takes through the murky darkness. He feels that, if she is not
in the house when he reaches it, he shall be able to keep silence no
longer. Even at the risk of betraying her secret the squire must be
told.

As he is passing the ruins a faint sound reaches his ear. He stops
instantly and listens, his head bent, every sense on the alert. He is
not thinking of Honor now--not in his wildest dreams would he connect
her in any way with these weird unholy old ruins; but he is anxious--as
anxious as ever Launce was--to solve the mystery that attaches to the
place. Again it comes, a long-drawn, gasping cry, with this time a ring
of fear in it.

"Good heavens, it is a woman!" he says, and goes quickly, but very
quietly and cautiously, in the direction of the sound.

He has gained the low-browed gateway leading into the great quadrangle,
when a dark figure dashes past him, and the next instant there is a
loud report. He feels a sharp pain in his shoulder, and knows that he
has been hit; but he does not give a thought to that in his intense
excitement. He is conscious of but one thing--Honor's voice calling his
name.

"Brian--oh, Brian, come to me!" The shrill clear tones ring through the
ghostly silence.

CHAPTER X., AND LAST.

Honor hastens down the avenue, looking neither to the right nor left.
Her head is dizzy, her heart beating heavily in this nervous dread that
has come upon her. She starts at every shadow that crosses her path;
the sound of the wind in the pine-trees almost makes her scream, and
when, just as she reaches the ruins, a low whistle breaks the quiet, a
sharp cry of terror escapes her lips.

"Whist, miss! It's a friend," a deep voice whispers close beside her,
though she can see no one; and the next moment Power Magill comes out
from the low doorway and calls her gently by name.

"My darling, this has been too much for you!" he says, seeing the dread
on her face as she stands close beside him. "I should not have asked
you to come here; but I felt that I could not go away till I had seen
your face, and heard you tell me with your own lips that you have
forgiven me."

He has led her across the great paved court to a corner where