ng as I can see
you and speak with you? You have not introduced me to your friend here."

"One word, sir," cried Raffles Haw in a quivering voice. "Do I entirely
understand you? Let me be sure that there is no mistake. You say that
you are engaged to be married to Miss McIntyre?"

"Of course I am. I've just come back from a four months' cruise, and I
am going to be married before I drag my anchor again."

"Four months!" gasped Haw. "Why, it is just four months since I came
here. And one last question, sir. Does Robert McIntyre know of your
engagement?"

"Does Bob know? Of course he knows. Why, it was to his care I left Laura
when I started. But what is the meaning of all this? What is the matter
with you, Laura? Why are you so white and silent? And--hallo! Hold up,
sir! The man is fainting!"

"It is all right!" gasped Haw, steadying himself against the edge of the
door.

He was as white as paper, and his hand was pressed close to his side as
though some sudden pain had shot through him. For a moment he tottered
there like a stricken man, and then, with a hoarse cry, he turned and
fled out through the open door.

"Poor devil!" said Hector, gazing in amazement after him. "He seems hard
hit anyhow. But what is the meaning of all this, Laura?"

His face had darkened, and his mouth had set.

She had not said a word, but had stood with a face like a mask looking
blankly in front of her. Now she tore herself away from him, and,
casting herself down with her face buried in the cushion of the sofa,
she burst into a passion of sobbing.

"It means that you have ruined me," she cried. "That you have
ruined-ruined--ruined me! Could you not leave us alone? Why must you
come at the last moment? A few more days, and we were safe. And you
never had my letter."

"And what was in your letter, then?" he asked coldly, standing with his
arms folded, looking down at her.

"It was to tell you that I released you. I love Raffles Haw, and I was
to have been his wife. And now it is all gone. Oh, Hector, I hate you,
and I shall always hate you as long as I live, for you have stepped
between me and the only good fortune that ever came to me. Leave me
alone, and I hope that you will never cross our threshold again."

"Is that your last word, Laura?"

"The last that I shall ever speak to you."

"Then, good-bye. I shall see the Dad, and go straight back to Plymouth."
He waited an instant, in hopes of an answer, and then walked sadly