re distended with fright.

"Missis!" he hissed in a guttural whisper.

"Here's Boss comin'!" and disappeared again like a monstrous goblin.

Sybil glanced up at Curtis. "Don't let him come here!" she said.

But for once he seemed to be at a loss. He made no response to her
appeal. While they waited, the hoofs drew steadily nearer, thudding over
the grass.

"Mr. Curtis!" she said urgently.

He made a sharp, despairing gesture. "I can't help it," he said. "You
must go. For Heaven's sake, don't let him touch you, and burn the
clothes you have on as soon as possible! I am going to set fire to this
place immediately."

"Going to--set fire to it?" She stared at him in surprise, still
scarcely understanding.

"The poor chap is dead," he said. "It's the only thing to do."

She turned back to the face upon the pillow with its staring, sightless
eyes. She raised a pitying hand to close them, but Curtis intervened.

He drew her to her feet. "Go!" he said. "Go! Keep Mercer away, that's
all!"

She heard the jingling of a horse's bit and knew that the rider was very
near. Mechanically almost, she turned from the place of death and went
to meet him.

XV

He was off his horse and striding for the entrance when she encountered
him. The starlight on his face showed it livid and terrible. At sight
of her he stopped short.

"Are you mad?" he said.

They were the identical words that Curtis had used; but his voice,
hoarse, unnatural, told her that he was in a dangerous mood.

She backed away from him. "Don't come near me!" she said quickly.
"He--he is just dead. And I have been with him."

"He?" he flung at her furiously, and she knew by his tone that he
suspected the truth.

She tried to answer him steadily, but her strength was beginning to fail
her. The long strain was telling upon her at last. She was uncertain of
herself.

"It--was Robin Wentworth," she said.

He took a swift stride towards her. His face was convulsed with passion.
"You came here to see that soddened cur?" he said.

She shrank away from him. The tempest of his anger overwhelmed her. She
could not stand against it. For the first time she quailed.

"I have seen him," she said. "And he is dead. Ah, don't--don't touch
me!"

He paid no attention to her cry. He seized her by the shoulders and
almost swung her from his path.

"It would have been better for you," he said between his teeth, "if he
had died before you got here. You have beg