continued
to burn steadily. He felt the woman who was clinging to his arm become
suddenly a dead weight.

"She was right!" Mrs. Fentolin moaned. "He is coming down to-night! He
is preparing to leave now; perhaps he has already started! What shall we
do? What shall we do?"

Hamel was conscious of a gathering sense of excitement. He, too, looked
at the signal which was flashing out its message towards them. Then
he gripped his companion's arm and almost carried her back into the
sitting-room.

"Look here," he said firmly, "you can do nothing further. You have
done your part and done it well. Stay where you are and wait. The rest
belongs to me."

"But what can you do?" she demanded, her voice shaking with fear.
"Meekins will come with him, and Doctor Sarson, unless he is here
already. What can you do against them? Meekins can break any ordinary
man's back, and Mr. Fentolin will have a revolver."

Hamel threw another log on to the fire and drew her chair closer to it.

"Never mind about," he declared cheerfully. "Mr. Fentolin is too clever
to attempt violence, except as a last resource. He knows that I have
friends in London who would need some explanation of my disappearance.
Stay here and wait."

She recognised the note of authority in his tone, and she bowed her
head. Then she looked up at him; she was a changed woman.

"Perhaps I have done ill to drag you into our troubles, Mr. Hamel," she
said, "and yet, I believe in you. I believe that you really care for
Esther. If you can help us now, it will be for your happiness, too. You
are a man. God bless you!"

Hamel groped his way round the side of the Tower and took up a position
at the extreme corner of the landward side of the building, within a
yard of the closed doors. The light far out upon the left was still
gleaming brightly, but two of the others in a line with it had
disappeared. He flattened himself against the wall and waited, listening
intently, his eyes straining through the darkness. Yet they were almost
upon him before he had the slightest indication of their presence. A
single gleam of light in the path, come and gone like a flash, the gleam
of an electric torch directed momentarily towards the road, was his
first indication that they were near. A moment or two later he heard
the strange click, click of the little engine attached to Mr. Fentolin's
chair. Hamel set his teeth and stepped a few inches further back. The
darkness was so intense that t