ly," she interrupted. "But I am innocent--my heart
is all yours! Trust me, dearest, to the end. And now go--go! Think what
it will mean to be found here together!"

With that she slipped by me, passed quickly to the end of the passage,
and vanished from sight. I reeled like a drunken man into my room,
closed the door noiselessly, and threw myself on the bed.

CHAPTER XLVI.

THE ALARM.

That sleepless night--I shudder as I recall it. For hours I tossed on
the bed, rent by conflicting emotions, ashamed one minute of my ignoble
thoughts, plunged the next into a black abyss of doubt. At the first
flush of wintry dawn I dozed off into slumber; the sun was shining when
I awoke, and the moonlight encounter seemed more a dream than a reality.

As I dressed I considered the matter as calmly as possible, and I made
two resolves--that I would hold fast to my faith in Flora, and would
patiently wait her own time for explaining the mystery. But the demon of
mistrust still lurked within me; I was as miserable as only a jealous
lover can be, and I dreaded unspeakably the ordeal of hiding my
feelings through the day.

What a memorable day it was to be! Its every incident is etched on the
curtain of the past with sharp and unfaded lines. The beginning was
commonplace enough. I was too late for breakfast, and I sat quite alone
over my coffee and fried fish. Flora I did not see. I exchanged a few
words with Captain Rudstone and Christopher Burley and then went off to
the clerks' quarters, where I assisted with the work until dinner time.

At that meal I was forced to pretend to be in good spirits, and I found
it a hard task. Captain Rudstone, whose identity was known to but the
four of us, told a laughable story of one of his experiences in the
States. But I observed, to my discomfiture, that he kept a close watch
on Flora. She sat opposite to me, joining in the conversation with a
ring of merriment that I detected as false, and as much as possible she
avoided meeting my eyes.

After dinner she left the room with Mrs. Macdonald, but first she found
an opportunity to slip a scrap of paper into my hand.

I walked to the window and opened it, and the few words that it
contained made my heart beat rapidly:

"If you love me, Denzil, trust me. All will, come right in the end."

As I thrust the paper into my pocket, feeling both comforted and puzzled
by the message,