en, and the flames are spreading. I don't
think they could save it--not if the engine was to come this minute."

"But I tell you they must!" cried Stephen Whitelaw. "If they don't, it'll
be murder--cold-blooded murder. O, my God, I never thought there was much
harm in the business--and it paid me well--but it's weighed me down like
a load of lead, and made me drink more to drown thought. But if it should
come to this--don't you understand? Don't sit staring at me like that. If
the fire gets to the west wing, it will be murder. There's some one
there--some one locked up--that won't be able to stir unless they get her
out."

"Some one locked up in the west wing! Are you mad, Stephen?"

"It's the truth. I wouldn't do it again--no, not for twice the money. Let
them get her out somehow. They can do it, if they look sharp."

That unforgotten footstep and equally unforgotten scream flashed into
Mrs. Whitelaw's mind with these words of her husband's. Some one shut up
there; yes, that was the solution of the mystery that had puzzled and
tormented her so long. That cry of anguish was no supernatural echo of
past suffering, but the despairing shriek of some victim of modern
cruelty. A poor relation of Stephen's perhaps--a helpless, mindless
creature, whose infirmities had been thus hidden from the world. Such
things have been too cruelly common in our fair free country.

Ellen laid her husband's head gently down upon the grass and sprang to
her feet.

"In which room?" she cried. But there was no answer. The man lay with
closed eyes--dying perhaps--but she could do nothing for him till medical
help came. The rescue of that unknown captive was a more urgent duty.

She was running towards the burning house, when she heard a horse
galloping on the road leading from the gate. She stopped, hoping that
this was the arrival of the doctor; but a familiar voice called to her,
and in another minute her father had dismounted and was close at her
side.

"Thank God you're safe, lass!" he exclaimed, with some warmer touch of
paternal feeling than he was accustomed to exhibit. "Our men saw the fire
when they were going to their work, and I came across directly. Where's
Steph?"

"Under the trees yonder, very much hurt; I'm afraid fatally. But there's
nothing we can do for him till the doctor comes. There's someone in still
greater danger, father. For God's sake, help us to save her--some one
shut up yonder, in a room at that end of the h