en she
said:

"Go now and get some rest, Strong. Leave the mustard on my face, and
then I think I can sleep. I am getting drowsy now."

Strong replaced the mustard, and raked up the fire. Then she looked
carefully to the fastenings of the doors, and returned to the bedside.
Already her mistress was in a heavy slumber.

Putting in her pocket the keys of both doors, Strong retired to the
dressing-room and, loosening her garments, threw herself down wearily
upon a couch, and was soon sleeping the sleep of the just, and
breathing heavily.

For some moments after the loud breathing told that her maid was
asleep, Cora lay quietly, but with eyes wide open. Then she stirred,
making a slight noise, but the heavy breathing continued as before.

Cora now raised herself up on her elbow and again listened. Still the
heavy breathing. Again she moved audibly, at the same time calling
softly: "Strong!"

But Strong slumbered on.

Quickly snatching the bandages from her much enduring face, Cora
sprang lightly from the bed. Taking something from under her pillows,
she stole noiselessly into the dressing-room and up to the couch of
the sleeping Strong. In another instant there was a pungent odor in
the room, and something white and moist lay over the musical proboscis
of the slumbering giantess.

In five minutes more, Cora Arthur stood arrayed in a dark traveling
suit, with a pair of walking boots in one hand, and the key of her
chamber door in the other. Swiftly and silently as a professional
house-breaker, she opened the door and passed out, closing it quietly
behind her.

Like a shadow she glided down the now unlighted stairway, and through
the dark and silent hall, in the direction of the dining-room. Turning
to the left, she paused before a side door, the very door through
which Madeline had escaped on a certain eventful June night, and
noiselessly undid the fastenings. In another moment she was outside,
and the door had closed behind her.

She drew a long breath of relief, and sat down to put on her shoes.
Her escape was well timed; the train for the city, the midnight
express, was due in twenty minutes. Strong would hardly waken before
that time, and then--she would be flying across the country at the
heels of the iron horse.

Rising to her feet, she took one step in the darkness--only one. Then
a light suddenly flashed before her eyes, a heavy hand grasped her
arm, and a gruff voice said: "This is a bad night for la