.

Something in the wildness of the intruder's look startled the hostess
and she pressed a button in the wall.

She saw Geraldine's face blanch and her eyes dilate with terror as the
man approached her, but no sound escaped her lips. The stranger put out
his hand. The girl shrank back. The queen of Keefe stepped forward.

"What do you mean by this?" she exclaimed sternly. "What do you wish?"

The man turned and faced her. "I've come on important business with this
girl. My name is Rufus Carder--you may have heard of it. Geraldine
Melody belongs to me. Her father gave her to me." He turned back quickly
to the girl, for Mrs. Barry's face warned him that his time was short.

"You may have gone away against your will, Gerrie," he said. "It ain't
too late to save your father. Come back with me now and there won't be a
word said. Refuse to come, and to-morrow all his pals shall know what he
was."

[Illustration: "Geraldine Melody belongs to me. Her Father gave her to
me"]

Geraldine straightened her slight body. Terror was in every line of her
delicate face, but Mrs. Barry saw her control it. The details of the
stories she had heard came back to her vividly. She realized the
suffering and the fate from which her boy had delivered the captive.
Geraldine was exquisite to look at now as she faced her jailer. That
ethereal quality which was hers gave her spirituelle face a wonderful
appeal.

"Ben was right," thought Mrs. Barry with a thrill of pride. "She is a
thoroughbred."

"Mr. Carder," she said, approaching still nearer, her peremptory tone
forcing him to turn his long, twitching face toward her, "Miss Melody is
about to marry my son. He will attend to any business you may have with
her."

"Huh! That's it, is it? You don't look like the kind of woman who will
enjoy having a forger in the family."

The girl's eyes closed under the stab.

"Geraldine, I should like you to go upstairs, dear," said Mrs. Barry
gently. The girl moved slowly toward the door, Carder's eyes following
her full of a fierce, baffled hunger.

He turned on Mrs. Barry with the ugliest look she had ever beheld in a
human countenance.

"Your son has stolen my boy, too, my servant, and I've come after him,"
he said. "The law'll teach that fellow whether he can take other
people's property. That boy was bound to me out o' the asylum and I
won't stand such impudence, I warn you. Where is he? Where is Pete? I've
got a few things to teach him." T