nded action of the morning, some grief or
disgrace was almost bound to descend before nightfall.

He noticed that Leonetta, with her customary eagerness and high spirits,
kept a few paces ahead of the rest, and that she constantly looked about
in all directions, as if in search of something or somebody. He half
feared that she would catch sight of him, and he therefore repeatedly
stooped, or halted behind any opportune screen of brambles, until she
turned her head in another direction. These manoeuvres unfortunately
materially delayed his progress; while, owing to the fact that he was
compelled to keep his eye constantly on the other party, he could not
pick his way as nicely as he would have liked.

Then, all at once, just as he saw Stephen, who was apparently trying to
catch Leonetta up, dart ahead, there was a loud report, and the youth
fell forward as if killed.

Horrified, Lord Henry halted like one suddenly frozen to the ground. He
saw Leonetta rush forward and lean over the fallen youth. He then
observed her rise again just as the others came up.

Then another shot was fired, and this time, although apparently the
shooter had missed his aim, Lord Henry quickly seized the whole tragic
meaning of what had occurred.

He was nothing if not a quick thinker. It was clear to him now,
particularly in view of all he knew, that whoever had fired that first
shot had meant to hit Leonetta. It was also abundantly clear that the
second shot was a second attempt because the first had failed, and
concluding from the sound that the assailant would be somewhere between
him and the shooting party, he swerved without any further hesitation,
sharply to the left, and ran as hard as he could in the direction of the
group that had now gathered round Stephen. He dodged the trees and
undergrowth as well as he could, and tried as he proceeded to scan all
the intervening ground.

He knew Cleopatra was reported to be a good shot; he had little doubt,
therefore, as to who the assailant was; but as he tore through the
undergrowth he was too much appalled by the thought of the tragic
development he had just witnessed, to think with anything but
consternation on behalf of the creature who, during the past week, had
become so dear to him.

He was not a bow-shot from the shooting party, however, when all of a
sudden, at a distance of a couple of yards from him, crouching behind a
tangle of bushes, her face deathly white, and her hands stru