it. I was convinced I heard some one in there. He rose
to get the whisky.

"Say when?"

I held the glass with a shaking hand:

"When."

"What's the matter, old man? You're ill."

I clutched him by the arm.

"Garry, there's some one in that room."

"Nonsense! there's no one there."

"There is, I tell you. Listen! Don't you hear them breathing?"

He was quiet. Distinctly I could hear the panting of human breath. I was
going mad, mad. I could stand it no longer.

"Garry," I gasped, "I'm going to see, I'm going to see."

"Don't----"

"Yes, I must, I say. Let me go. I'll drag them out."

"Hold on----"

"Leave go, man! I'm going, I say. You won't hold me. Let go, I tell you,
let go--Now come out, come out, whoever you are--Ah!"

It was a woman.

"Ha!" I cried, "I told you so, brother; a woman. I think I know her,
too. Here, let me see--I thought so."

I had clutched her, pulled her to the light. It was Berna.

Her face was white as chalk, her eyes dilated with terror. She trembled.
She seemed near fainting.

"I thought so."

Now that it seemed the worst was betrayed to me, I was strangely calm.

"Berna, you're faint. Let me lead you to a chair."

I made her sit down. She said no word, but looked at me with a wild
pleading in her eyes. No one spoke.

There we were, the three of us: Berna faint with fear, ghastly, pitiful;
I calm, yet calm with a strange, unnatural calmness, and Garry--he
surprised me. He had seated himself, and with the greatest _sang-froid_
he was lighting a cigarette.

A long tense silence. At last I broke it.

"What have you got to say for yourself, Garry?" I asked.

It was wonderful how calm he was.

"Looks pretty bad, doesn't it, brother?" he said gravely.

"Yes, it couldn't look worse."

"Looks as if I was a pretty base, despicable specimen of a man, doesn't
it?"

"Yes, about as base as a man could be."

"That's so." He rose and turned up the light of a large reading-lamp,
then coming to me he looked me square in the face. Abruptly his casual
manner dropped. He grew sharp, forceful; his voice rang clear.

"Listen to me."

"I'm listening."

"I came out here to save you, and I'm going to save you. You wanted me
to believe that this girl was good. You believed it. You were bewitched,
befooled, blinded. I could see it, but I had to make you see it. I had
to make you realise how worthless she was, how her love for you was a
sham, a pretence to prey on you. How co