enly.

"Locked up away from you, locked up because she rebelled!"

"And Dunster?"

She shook her head. Her eyes were filled with horror.

"But he left the Hall--I saw him!"

She shook her head.

"It wasn't Dunster. It was the man Miles makes use of--Ryan, the
librarian. He was once an actor."

"Where is Dunster, then?" Hamel asked quickly. "What has become of him?"

She opened her lips and closed them again, struggled to speak and
failed. She sat there, breathing quickly, but silent. The power of
speech had gone.

CHAPTER XXXII

Hamel, for the next few minutes, forgot everything else in his efforts
to restore to consciousness his unexpected visitor. He rebuilt the
fire, heated some water upon his spirit lamp, and forced some hot drink
between the lips of the woman who was now almost in a state of collapse.
Then he wrapped her round in his own ulster and drew her closer to the
fire. He tried during those few moments to put away the memory of all
that she had told him. Gradually she began to recover. She opened her
eyes and drew a little sigh. She made no effort at speech, however. She
simply lay and looked at him like some wounded animal. He came over to
her side and chafed one of her cold hands.

"Come," he said at last, "you begin to look more like yourself now. You
are quite safe in here, and, for Esther's sake as well as your own, you
know that I am your friend."

She nodded, and her fingers gently pressed his.

"I am sure of it," she murmured.

"Now let us see where we are," he continued. "Tell me exactly why you
risked so much by leaving St. David's Hall to-night and coming down
here. Isn't there any chance that he might find out?"

"I don't know," she answered. "It was Lucy Price who sent me. She came
to my room just as I was undressing."

"Lucy Price," he repeated. "The secretary?"

"Yes! She told me that she had meant to come to you herself. She sent
me instead. She thought it best. This man Dunster is being kept alive
because there is something Miles wants him to tell him, and he won't.
But to-night, if he is still alive, if he won't tell, they mean to make
away with him. They are afraid."

"Miss Price told you this?" Hamel asked gravely.

Mrs. Fentolin nodded.

"Yes! She said so. She knows--she knows everything. She has been like
the rest of us. She, too, has suffered. She, too, has reached the
breaking point. She loved him before the accident. She has been his
slave ever since