to
recall any more than that of my dead father."

"Your father was a good man. Benton was not."

"Ah! Then you admit knowing both of them, Mademoiselle," cried Hugh
quickly.

"Yes. I--well--I may as well admit it! Why, indeed, should I seek to
hide the truth--_from you_," she said in a changed voice. "Pardon me. I
was very upset at receiving the card. Pardon me--will you not?"

"I will not, unless you tell me the truth concerning my father's death
and his iniquitous will left concerning myself. I am here to ascertain
that, Mademoiselle," he said in a hard voice.

"And if I tell you--what then?" she asked with knit brows.

"If you tell me, then I am prepared to promise you on oath secrecy
concerning yourself--provided you allow me to punish those who are
responsible. Remember, my father died by foul means. _And you know it!_"

The woman faced him boldly, but she was very pale.

"So that is a promise?" she asked. "You will protect me--you will be
silent regarding me--you swear to be so--if--if I tell you something.
I repeat that your father was a good man. I held him in the highest
esteem, and--and--after all--it is but right that you, his son, should
know the truth."

"Thank you Mademoiselle. I will protect you if you will only reveal to
me the devilish plot which resulted in his untimely end," Hugh assured
her.

Again she knit her brows and reflected for a few moments. Then in a low,
intense, unnatural voice she said:

"Listen, Mr. Henfrey. I feel that, after all, my conscience would be
relieved if I revealed to you the truth. First--well, it is no use
denying the fact that your father was not exactly the man you and his
friends believed him to be. He led a strange dual existence, and I will
disclose to you one or two facts concerning his untimely end which will
show you how cleverly devised and how cunning was the plot--how----"

At that instant Hugh was startled by a bright flash outside the
half-open window, a loud report, followed by a woman's shrill shriek of
pain.

Then, next moment, ere he could rush forward to save her, Mademoiselle,
with the truth upon her lips unuttered, staggered and fell back heavily
upon the carpet!

THIRD CHAPTER

IN THE NIGHT

Hugh Henfrey, startled by the sudden shot, shouted for assistance, and
then threw himself upon his knees beside the prostrate woman.

From a bullet wound over the right ear blood was slowly oozing and
trickling over her white cheek.