him. His great scheme seemed more fantastic and its
difficulties more real. What could be easier than to spring out and
intercept the clergyman, but would that save the girl? What force did
the house hold? He had to deal with men who would stop short at nothing
to achieve their purpose and in particular one man who had not hesitated
at murder.

He felt his heart thumping, not at the thought of danger, though danger
he knew was all round, but from sheer panic that he himself was about to
play an unworthy part. Whatever fears or doubts he may have had suddenly
fall away from him and he rose to his knees, for not twenty yards away
at a window, her hands grasping the bars, her apathetic eyes looking
listlessly toward where he crouched, was Oliva Cresswell.

Regardless of danger, he broke cover and ran toward her.

"Miss Cresswell," he called.

She looked at him across the concrete well without astonishment and
without interest.

"It is you," she said, with extraordinary calm.

He stood on the brink of the well hesitating. It was too far to leap and
he remembered that behind the lilac bush he had seen a builder's plank.
This he dragged out and passed it across the chasm, leaning the other
end upon a ledge of brickwork which butted from the house.

He stepped quickly across, gripped the bars and found a foothold on the
ledge, the girl standing watching him without any sign of interest. He
knew something was wrong. He could not even guess what that something
was. This was not the girl he knew, but an Oliva Cresswell from whom all
vitality and life had been sapped.

"You know me?" he said. "I am Mr. Beale."

"I know you are Mr. Beale," she replied evenly.

"I have come to save you," he said rapidly. "Will you trust me? I want
you to trust me," he said earnestly. "I want you to summon every atom of
faith you have in human nature and invest it in me. Will you do this for
me?"

"I will do this for you," she said, like a child repeating a lesson.

"I--I want you to marry me." He realized as he said these words in what
his fear was founded. He knew now that it was her refusal even to go
through the form of marriage which he dared not face.

The truth leapt up to him and sent the blood pulsing through his head,
that behind and beyond his professional care for her he loved her. He
waited with bated breath, expecting her amazement, her indignation, her
distress. But she was serene and untroubled, did not so much as raise