he girl clutched him
nervously; her hand was shaking. He could feel her shiver, so he slipped
an arm about her waist. He did this merely to steady her, he told
himself. He reasoned further that such a familiarity could scarcely be
offensive in the dark. As she yielded gratefully to his embrace, her
soft body palpitating against his own, he ceased reasoning and drew her
closer. It was very agreeable to discover that she made no resistance;
he could not recollect any sensation quite like this! As yet he had done
nothing improper, in view of the fact that it was every gentleman's
bounden duty to succor beauty in distress. He wondered if his friends at
the Grunewald had missed him, then realized with relief that Miss
Banniman never allowed his presence or his absence to interfere in the
slightest with her arrangements. They were probably finishing their
drinks by now. This would make an entertaining story, later in the
evening; they would never guess what he was doing.

"Who is that speaking?" he inquired.

"Francois, the Spider," whispered the girl. "Eh, God! How they all have
come to hate you!"

Roly reasoned from these words that his enemies numbered more than one
or two, and involuntarily he asked: "Hate me? What for?"

The girl trembled. "As if you did not know."

"And what would happen if they found me--us?" he persisted, feeling
vaguely for some hint.

"Ah!" Her breath caught. "Hush!" She laid her fingers over the lips of
his mask.

Van Dam yielded to an ungovernable impulse and kissed them through the
stiff, harsh cloth, whereat she said in wonderment:

"Heaven guard us! You are actually laughing. That you are wild, I knew;
but--you are--you act very strangely, m'sieu."

"Perhaps I'm intoxicated," he murmured, and pressed her slender waist
meaningly; whereupon she seemed to feel his arm for the first time. She
drew away, but as she disengaged his embrace her hand encountered his.

"It is wet--bloody--where you struck the Black Wolf."

"That was a good wallop, wasn't it?" Van Dam chuckled, with
satisfaction, while she felt for her handkerchief and dabbled at his
bruised knuckles. "I wondered if I could put him out."

Then they ceased whispering, for some one was entering the stable
beneath them. After a time the stairs creaked to a heavy tread, a hand
tried the door, and they could feel a presence within arm's-length. They
stood motionless, not daring even to shift their weight upon the crazy
floor, un