"tut, tut, not at all. Come
on, I'll give you a hand up!"

He thrust out a large, white hand. Desmond was about to grasp it
when he saw gleaming on the third finger a gold snake ring with
emerald eyes--the ring that Mrs. Malplaquet had given Bellward.
He was about to draw back but the man was too quick for him.
Owing to the slope of the ground the window of the summer-house
was on a level with Desmond's throat. The man's two hands shot
out simultaneously. One grasped Desmond's wrist in a steel grip
whilst the other fastened itself about the young man's throat,
squeezing the very breath out of his body. It was done so quickly
that he had no time to struggle, no time to shout. As Bellward
seized him, another arm was shot out of the window. Desmond felt
himself gripped by the collar and lifted, by a most amazing
effort of strength, bodily over the wall.

His brain swimming with the pressure on his throat, he struggled
but feebly to recover his freedom. However, as Desmond was
dropped heavily on to the grass on the other side of the wall,
Bellward's grip relaxed just for a second and in that instant
Desmond made one desperate bid for liberty. He fell in a
crouching position and, as he felt Bellward loosen his hold for a
second with the jerk of his victim's fall, Desmond straightened
himself up suddenly, catching his assailant a violent blow with
his head on the point of the chin.

Bellward fell back with a crash on to the timber flooring of the
pavilion. Desmond heard his head strike the boards with a thud,
heard a muttered curse. He found himself standing in a narrow
lane, less than three feet wide, which ran between the garden
wall and the summer-house; for the pavilion, erected on a slight
knoll surrounded by turf, was not built against the wall as is
usually the case with these structures.

In this narrow space Desmond stood irresolute for the merest
fraction of a second. It was not longer; for, directly after
Bellward had crashed backwards, Desmond heard a light step
reverberate within the planks of the summerhouse. His most
obvious course was to scramble back over the wall again into
safety, in all thankfulness at having escaped so violent an
attack. But he reflected that Bellward was here and that surely
meant that the others were not far off. In that instant as he
heard the stealthy footstep cross the floor of the summer-house,
Desmond resolved he would not leave the garden until he had
ascertained whether