, than the
hardest man! And to punish a fellow like that by making him live in an
ice-house, when you could have done anything with him by a little
kindness! Don't _I_ know that?

"I'm the sponsor for such sins as Don's committed. He was meant to be
straight. But I got hold of him through an agent, and caught his
imagination when that wild vow was freshly branded on his heart or brain.
I have the gift of fascination, Mrs. Donaldson. I know that better than I
know most things. _You_ feel it to-night, or you wouldn't sit there
letting me tear your heart to pieces--what's left of your heart. And I
have an idea there's a good deal more than you think, if you have the
sense to patch the bits together.

"I have fascination, and I've cultivated it. Napoleon himself didn't
study more ardently than I the art of winning men. I won Don. I appealed
to the romance in him. I became his hero and--slowly--I was able to make
him my servant. Not much of my money or anything else has ever stuck to
his hands. He's too generous--too impulsive; though I taught him it was
necessary to control his impulses.

"What he did, he did for love of me, till you came along and lit another
sort of fire in his blood. I saw in one minute, when he called on me,
what had happened to his soul. It's taken you more than a year to see,
though he's lived for you and would have died for you. Great Heaven,
young woman, you ought to be on your knees before a miracle of God!
Instead, you've mounted a marble pedestal and worshipped your own
purity!"

Annesley bowed her head under a wave of shame. _This_ man, of all others,
had shown her a vision of herself as she was. It seemed that she could
never lift her eyes. But suddenly, into the crying of the wind, a shot
broke sharply; then another and another, till the sobbing wail was lost
in a crackling fusillade.

The girl leaped to her feet.

"Raiders!" she gasped. "Or else----"

Paul Van Vreck sprang up also, his face paler, his eyes brighter than
before.

"They've come after me," he said. "Clever trick--if they've bribed
ruffians from over the border to cover their ends. The real errand's
here, inside this house."

Annesley's heart faltered.

"You must hide," she breathed. "I must save you--somehow."

"Why should you save _me_?" Van Vreck asked, sharply. "Why not think
about saving yourself?"

"Because I know Knight would wish to save you," she answered. "I want to
do what he would do.... God help us,