e
could feel the horror that pulsed through her veins; it set his own
blood racing at fever-speed.

Over her head he faced the stranger with eyes of steely hardness. "You
have made a mistake," he said, briefly and sternly.

The other man's teeth gleamed again. He had a way of lifting his lip
when talking which gave him an oddly bestial look. "I think not," he
said. "Let the lady speak for herself! She will not--I think--deny me."

There was an intolerable sneer in the last sentence. A sudden awful
doubt smote through Merryon. He turned to the girl sobbing at his
breast.

"Puck," he said, "for Heaven's sake--what is this man to you?"

She did not answer him; perhaps she could not. Her distress was terrible
to witness, utterly beyond all control.

But the newcomer was by no means disconcerted by it. He drew near with
the utmost assurance.

"Allow me to deal with her!" he said, and reached out a hand to touch
her.

But at that action Merryon's wrath burst into sudden flame. "Curse you,
keep away!" he thundered. "Lay a finger on her at your peril!"

The other stood still, but his eyes gleamed evilly. "My good sir," he
said, "you have not yet grasped the situation. It is not a pleasant one
for you--for either of us; but it has got to be grasped. I do not happen
to know under what circumstances you met this woman; but I do know that
she was my lawful wife before the meeting took place. In whatever light
you may be pleased to regard that fact, you must admit that legally she
is my property, not yours!"

"Oh, no--no--no!" moaned Puck.

Merryon said nothing. He felt strangled, as if a ligature about his
throat had forced all the blood to his brain and confined it there.

After a moment the bearded man continued: "You may not know it, but she
is a dancer of some repute, a circumstance which she owes entirely to
me. I picked her up, a mere child in the streets of London, turning
cart-wheels for a living. I took her and trained her as an acrobat. She
was known on the stage as Toby the Tumbler. Everyone took her for a boy.
Later, she developed a talent for dancing. It was then that I decided to
marry her. She desired the marriage even more than I did." Again he
smiled his brutal smile.

"Oh, no!" sobbed Puck. "Oh, no!"

He passed on with a derisive sneer. "We were married about two years
ago. She became popular in the halls very soon after, and it turned her
head. You may have discovered yourself by this time that