are you doing in my wife's bedroom?" he asked.

"I am here to see you out of the house," Macheson answered, with one
breathless glance around the room. "Will you come quietly?"

"Out of my own house?" Jean le Roi said softly. "Out of my wife's room?
Who are you?"

[Illustration: THE BONE SNAPPED, AND THE KNIFE FELL FROM THE NERVELESS
FINGERS. Page 301]

"Never mind," Macheson answered. "Her friend! Let that be enough. And
let me tell you this. If I had come too late I would have wrung your
neck."

Jean le Roi sprang at him like a cat, his legs off the ground, one arm
around the other's neck, and something gleaming in his right hand.
Nothing but Macheson's superb strength saved him. He risked being
throttled, and caught Jean le Roi's right arm in such a grip that he
swung him half round the room. The bone snapped, and the knife fell from
the nerveless fingers. But Macheson let go a second too soon. Jean le
Roi had all the courage and the insensibility to pain of a brute animal.
He stretched out his foot, and with a trick of his old days, tripped
Macheson so that he fell heavily. Jean le Roi bent over him on his
knees, breathing heavily, and with murder in his eyes. Macheson scarcely
breathed! He lay perfectly still. Jean le Roi staggered to his feet and
turned towards Wilhelmina.

"You see, madame," he said, seizing her by the wrist, "how I shall deal
with your lovers if there are any more of them. No use tugging at that
bell. I saw to that before you came! I'm used to fighting for what I
want, and I think I've won you!"

He caught her into his arms, but suddenly released her with a low animal
cry. He knew that this was the end, for he was pinioned from behind, a
child in the mighty grip which held him powerless. "You are a little too
hasty, my friend," Macheson remarked. "I was afraid I might not be so
quick as you on my feet, so I rested for a moment. But no man has ever
escaped from this grip till I chose to let him go. Now," he added,
turning to Wilhelmina, "the way is clear. Will you go outside and rouse
the servants? Don't come back."

"You are--quite safe?" she faltered.

"Absolutely," he answered. "I could hold him with one hand."

Jean le Roi lifted his head. His brain was working swiftly.

"Listen!" he exclaimed. "It is finished! I am beaten! I, Jean le Roi,
admit defeat. Why call in servants? The affair is better finished
between ourselves."

Wilhelmina paused. In that first great rush of relief