Why didn't you--why didn't you tell me?"

Carrie stood up, as much excited as he was. Her blue eyes flashed, her
lips trembled as she spoke.

"What do I care--for him?" she said under her breath. "A man must take
the risk of the things he does, mustn't he? But you--you had done
nothing; and--and you have been kind to me. I didn't want you to go. I
couldn't let you go. So I tried to keep you. I didn't want you to
remember. And it was easy enough."

Max felt a pang of keen self-reproach. Yes, it had been easy enough for
a girl with a pretty face to make him forget his friend. He turned
quickly toward the door. But Carrie moved even more rapidly, and by the
time he reached it she was there before him.

"It's too late now," she said in that deep voice of hers, which, when
she was herself moved, was capable of imparting her own emotion to her
hearers. "He's been gone an hour. He'll be there by this time. What good
could you do him by going? There's an understanding between her and him.
He'll be all right. Now _you_ would not."

Max stared at the girl in perplexity. She spoke with confidence, with
knowledge. A great dread on his friend's account began to creep over
him. Why should Dudley be safe where he himself was not, unless he were
in league with the old hag? Or, again, was it possible that
Carrie--pretty, sweet-faced Carrie--was acting in concert with the gang,
detaining him so that Dudley might be an easier prey to her accomplices?

As this suspicion crossed his mind, he, knowing his own weakness,
resolved to act without the hesitation which would be fatal to his
purpose.

Seizing her by the arm, he drew her almost roughly out of the way, and,
opening the door, went out into the ante-room.

But before he could open the outer door, Carrie had overtaken him and
seized him by the arm in her turn.

"No, no," said she, passionately. "I will not let you go. You don't know
what you are rushing into; you don't know what I do."

"What do you mean?"

"That if you were to go into that house again, you wouldn't leave it
alive!"

"All the more reason," said Max, struggling to free himself from the
tenacious grasp of her fingers, which were a good deal stronger than he
had supposed, "why I should not let him go into such a place alone."

"Well, if you go, you will take me," said Carrie, almost fiercely.

"Come along, then."

He had his hand on the door, when he noticed that she had left her cape
in the room.

"Fe