d him to
suspicion. But suddenly it seemed to him that a wild cry rang out upon
the stillness of the night air. His friend's name--or was it his
own?--three times repeated, in tones of heartrending pain and terror.
"Brian! Brian! Brian!" Whose voice had called him? Not that of anyone he
knew. And yet, what stranger would use that name? He stopped, looked
round, and answered:--

"Yes, I am here."

And then it struck him that the voice had been close beside him, and
that, standing where he stood in the middle of the long, white road, it
was quite impossible that any one could be so near, and yet remain
unseen.

With a slight shudder he let his eyes explore the sides of the road: the
hedgerows, and the bank that rose on his right hand towards the wood.
Surely there was something that moved and stopped, and moved again
amongst the bracken. With one bound Dino reached the moving object, and
dragged it forth into the light. He knew whom he was touching before he
saw the face. It was Hugo who lurked in the hedgerows, waiting--and for
what?

"You heard it?" said Dino, as the young man crouched before him,
scarcely daring to lift up his head, although at that moment, if he had
had his wits about him, he could not have had a better chance for the
accomplishment of any sinister design. "Who called?"

Hugo cast a quick startled glance at the wood behind him. "I heard
nothing," he said, sullenly.

"I heard a voice that called me," said Dino. Then he looked at Hugo, and
pressed his shoulder somewhat heavily with his hand. "What were you
doing there? For whom were you waiting?"

"For nobody," muttered Hugo.

"Are you sure of that? I could almost believe that you were waiting for
me; and should I be far wrong? When I think of that other time, when you
deceived me, and trapped me, and left me dying, as you thought, in the
streets, I can believe anything of you now."

Hugo's trembling lips refused to articulate a word. He could neither
deny the charge nor plead for mercy.

Dino's exultation of mood led him to despise an appeal to any but the
higher motives. He would not condescend to threaten Hugo with the
police-court and the criminal cell. He loosed his hold on the young
man's shoulder, and told him to rise from the half-kneeling posture, to
which fear, rather than Dino's strength, had brought him. And when Hugo
stood before him, he spoke in the tone of one to whom the spiritual side
of life was more real, more important