' he exclaimed.

Now for it, Helena! She just caught the words in the wild flash of their
flight. Never before had he used her name in that way. He rode his
unsaddled horse with all the ease of another Mephistopheles; and what
delighted the girl was that he seemed to count on her riding her course
just as well.

'Look out everywhere you can,' he called to her; 'tell me if you see a
squirrel stirring, or the eyes of an owl looking out of the ivy-bushes.'

Helena had marvellous sight--but she could descry no human figure, no
human eyes, but _his_ anywhere amid the myriad eyes of the dark night.
They rode on and round.

'We shall soon find out the whole story,' he said to her after a while,
and he brought his horse so near to hers that it touched her saddle.
'There is no one in the grounds, and we shall soon know all, if we have
only to deal with the people who were indoors. I think we have settled
that already.'

'But what _is_ it all?' she breathlessly asked, as they galloped round
the young plantation. The hour, the companionship, the gallop, the fresh
breath of the morning air among the trees, seemed to make her feel as if
she never had been young before.

'"Miching mallecho; it means mischief," as Hamlet says,' the Dictator
replied, 'and very much mischief too,' and he checked himself, pulling
up his horse so suddenly that the creature fell back upon his haunches,
and then flinging himself off the horse as lightly as if he were
performing some equestrian exercise to win a prize in a competition.
Then he let his own horse run loose, and he stopped Helena's, and took
her foot in his hand.

'Jump off!' he said, in a voice of quiet authority. They were now in
front of the hall-door.

'What more is the matter?' she asked nervously, though she did not delay
her descent. She was firm on the gravel already, picking up the dragging
skirts of her dressing-gown. The dawn was lighting on her.

'The house is on fire at this side,' he said composedly. 'I must go and
show them how to put it out.'

'The house on fire!' she exclaimed.

'Yes--for the moment. I shall put that all right.'

She was prepared for anything now. 'We have a fire-escape in the
village,' she said, panting for breath. She had full faith in the
Dictator's power to conquer any conflagration, but she did not want to
give utterly away the resources of Seagate Hall.

'Yes, I am afraid of that sort of thing,' the Dictator replied. 'I have
no time to lo