rted to shake my head, and _bang!_--the
pistol blazed right into my face.

Heaven knows where the bullet went; I only know that it missed me.
Next instant I was too busy to think about how narrow had been my
escape. I sprang up agilely enough now, and was only just in time to
catch the drooping figure before it fell. As I passed a supporting arm
round her, her hair tumbled about her face and over her shoulders. Her
eyes were closed, her brow was gathered in a frown, her lips were
pinched and livid.

I acted rapidly. She had not fainted--was not wholly unconscious--for
she was still putting forth a feeble effort to help herself. I eased
her into the chair, behind which she had been standing and into which
she now sank limp and silent. Her chin fell forward upon her bosom,
and now and then her shoulders rose in a racking, gasping sob.

She let the still smoking pistol drop into my hand. Somewhere below I
could hear Genevieve calling wildly and some one pounding away upon a
door.

Next I got the keys from Miss Belle's yielding fingers, and soon had
the door to the room open. The cries and pounding had ceased, and I
surmised that the troop of maids and other servants chattering on the
lower stairs and in the second story hall had been attracted to their
source. Then a hope came to me that the shot had passed unnoticed.

Well, it transpired that Genevieve was locked in a room on the second
floor, much to the amazement of the servants, none of whom, I was
thankful to learn, had heard the shot. Genevieve had, though, or I was
very much mistaken in the cause of her vigorous effort to attract
attention and her present frenzied appeals for some one to break down
the door.

"Oh, please, please, don't wait for the key," she was importuning them.
"Break in the door--only hurry!"

"Everything's all right, Miss Cooper," I called. A little cry of
relief came from beyond the closed portal. "I have the key," I added.

The second key which Miss Fluette had held was the one, and I had the
bolt shot in a jiffy. Genevieve ran straight to me and threw herself
into my arms.

Whatever it was she meant to say in her first overjoyed transport,
remained unsaid; for I unceremoniously clapped a hand over her mouth,
picked her up and carried her bodily back into the room, and slammed
the door upon the gaping servants.

"They don't know," I said. "Go up-stairs to Belle; she has fainted.
The explosion was accidental, and no o