."

She rose, and he surveyed her slight figure in its thin muslin gown with
some amusement.

"Not quite a suitable costume for motoring by night," he remarked. He
picked up one of the two big fur coats Mrs. Judson had brought into the
room. "Here, put this on." Then, when he had fastened it round her
and turned the collar up about her neck, he stood looking at her for a
moment in silence.

The whole of her slender form was hidden beneath the voluminous folds
of the big coat, which had been originally designed to fit Garth's own
proportions, and against the high fur collar her delicate cameo face,
with its white skin and scarlet lips and its sombre, night-black eyes,
emerged like some vivid flower from its sheath.

Trent laughed shortly.

"Beauty--in the garment of the Beast," he commented. Then, briskly:
"Come along. Judson will have the car ready by now."

Sara stepped into the car and he tucked the rugs carefully round
her. Then, directing Judson to drive the Selwyn pony and trap back to
Sunnyside, he took his place at the wheel and the car slid noiselessly
away down the broad drive.

"The surprising discovery of the doctor's pony and trap at Far End
to-morrow morning would require explanation," he observed grimly to
Sara. She blessed his thoughtfulness.

"What about Judson?" she asked. "Is he reliable? Or do you think he
will--talk?"

"Judson," replied Garth, "has been in my service long enough to know the
meaning of the word 'discretion.'"

Trent drove the car steadily enough through town, but, as soon as they
emerged on to the great London main road, he let her out and they swept
rapidly along through the lingering summer twilight.

"Are you nervous?" he asked. "Do you mind forty or fifty miles an hour
when we've a clear stretch ahead of us?"

"Eighty, if you like," she replied succinctly.

She felt the car leap forward like a living thing beneath them as it
gathered speed.

"Do you think--is it possible that we can overtake them?" she asked
anxiously.

"It's got to be done," he answered, and she was conscious of the quiet
driving-force that lay behind the speech--the stubborn resolution of
the man which she had begun to recognize as his most dominant
characteristic.

She wondered, as she had so often wondered before, whether any one had
ever yet succeeded in turning Garth Trent aside from his set purpose,
whatever it might chance to be. She could not imagine his yielding to
either threats o