ogether? But we--Don't you know John Mark has given orders--"

"That I'm not to leave the room. What difference does that make? They
won't dare stop us if you are with me, leading the way."

"Caroline, are you mad? When I come back--"

"You're not coming back."

"Not coming back!"

"No, you're going on with me!"

She took Ruth by the arms and turned her until the light struck into her
eyes. Ruth Tolliver, aghast at this sudden strength in one who had
always been a meek follower, obeyed without resistance.

"But where?" she demanded.

"Where I'm going."

"What?"

"To Ronicky Doone, my dear. Don't you see?"

The insistence bewildered Ruth Tolliver. She felt herself driven
irresistibly forward, with or without her own will.

"Caroline," she protested, trying feebly to free herself from the
commanding hands and eyes of her companion, "are you quite mad? Go to
him? Why should I? How can I?"

"Not as I'm going to Bill Gregg, with my heart in my hands, but to ask
Ronicky Doone--bless him!--to take you away somewhere, so that you can
begin a new life. Isn't that simple?"

"Ask charity of a stranger?"

"You know he isn't a stranger, and you know it isn't charity. He'll be
happy. He's the kind that's happy when he's being of use to others?"

"Yes," answered Ruth Tolliver, "of course he is."

"And you'd trust him?"

"To the end of the world. But to leave--"

"Ruth, you've kept cobwebs before your eyes so long that you don't see
what's happening around you. John Mark hypnotizes you. He makes you
think that the whole world is bad, that we are simply making capital out
of our crimes. As a matter of fact, the cold truth is that he has made
me a thief, Ruth, and he has made you something almost as bad--a
gambler!"

The follower had become the leader, and she was urging Ruth Tolliver
slowly to the door. Ruth was protesting--she could not throw herself on
the kindness of Ronicky Doone--it could not be done. It would be
literally throwing herself at his head. But here the door opened, and
she allowed herself to be led out into the hall. They had not made more
than half a dozen steps down its dim length when the guard hurried
toward them.

"Talk to him," whispered Caroline Smith. "He's come to stop me, and
you're the only person who can make him let me pass on!"

The guard hurriedly came up to them. "Sorry," he said. "Got an idea
you're going downstairs, Miss Smith."

"Yes," she said faintly.

The fellow gr