rnestly. "I won't ever do it again. I swear I won't."

Dick smiled somewhat wryly. "No. You'll probably think of some other
devilry even worse." He put his arm round the humped shoulders with the
words. "You'll forget--you always do--that it's I who have to pay."

Robin pressed against him, still dog-like in his contrition. "Will it
cost much?" he asked.

"Oh that! The window, you mean? Well, not so much as if you had broken
Jack's head--as you intended."

There was some hint of returning grimness in Dick's voice. Robin made an
ingratiating movement, leaning his rough head against his brother's arm.

Dick went on, ignoring the unspoken appeal. "You've got to stop it Robin.
If you don't, there'll be trouble--worse trouble than you've had yet.
You don't want to leave me, I suppose?"

"Leave you, Dicky?" Robin stared round in horror. "Leave you?" he
repeated incredulously. "Go to prison, do you mean?"

Dick nodded. "Something like it."

"Dick!" Robin stared at him aghast. "But--you--you'd never let
them--take me?"

"If you were to damage Jack--or anyone else--badly, I shouldn't be able
to prevent it." Dick said rather wearily. "If it came to that--I
shouldn't even try."

"Dick!" Robin gasped again, then passionately; "But I--I--I couldn't
live--away from you! I'd--I'd kill myself!"

"No, you wouldn't. You wouldn't get the chance." Dick was staring
straight before him down the room, as if he watched some evil vision
against the darkness. "People aren't allowed to kill themselves in
prison. If they try to do anything of that sort, they're tied down till
they come to their senses. If they behave like brutes, they're treated as
such, till at last they turn into that and nothing else. And then--God
help them!"

A sudden hard shudder caught him. He shook it off impatiently, and turned
to the quivering figure still kneeling in the circle of his arm.

He gripped it suddenly close. "That's the sort of hell these fiendish
tempers of yours might end in," he said. "You've got to save yourself, my
son. I can't save you."

Robin clung to him tensely, desperately. "You don't--want me to go,
Dicky?" he whispered.

"Good God!" Richard said. "I'd rather see you dead!"

In the silence that followed, Robin turned with a curious groping
movement, took the hand that pressed his shoulder, and pulled it
over his eyes.

CHAPTER II

MIDSUMMER MADNESS

An ominous darkness brooded over all things as Green walked up th