ushed against the door. They stumbled into the
next room, breathing deeply the fresh, clean air.

Alden's prostrate form lay just within. His wife stood across the room
by the hall door, the revolver held listlessly in her hand. Her hair,
more than ever disordered, fell about her weary eyes, and gave her face
an air of ironical witchery.

Garth caught the meaning of the tableau. He glanced with admiration at
the sick man, appreciating the bitter obstacle he had overcome, the
abhorrent chance he had taken after conquering his physical incapacity
and reaching the door. The result, Garth noticed, had carried to Alden a
vast relief, a shadow of content. The light from the conservatory
flickered about his face, exposing an expression of pride. The silent
lips moved as if to frame a boast.

"So, Mrs. Alden," Garth said, "you left him again. To warn the others?"

She did not answer. He shrugged his shoulders.

"Anyway," he went on, "when you came back and found him at the key you
didn't have time to get to him, and you weren't quite as bad as you
should have been. You let him unlock the door. You didn't have the nerve
to shoot--your husband."

"Don't, Jim," Nora warned. "You don't understand."

Frankly he didn't, but he knew that Mrs. Alden, in a sense, still
controlled the situation. Her revolver could compel their movements. Its
explosion would doubtless bring help swarming to her side.

"And you see," Nora went on, speaking to her gently, "what a useless
sacrifice it would have been. Everything was finished for you the moment
I lighted the beacon."

Mrs. Alden nodded.

Garth grinned as the protective feminine instinct expressed itself
through this woman in her most intricate hour.

"It was all arranged," she said. "If you will close that door the house
will be safe enough from the fire."

She indicated her husband. There were tears in her eyes again.

"You will take care of him?"

"Yes," Nora said.

She turned and closed the door. Through the sudden darkness Garth heard
Mrs. Alden run into the hall. He sprang after her, but Nora's voice,
sharp and commanding, halted him.

"Let her go, Jim. I'll explain. Light the lamp now."

"You've earned the right to give the orders," he said.

He felt his way to the writing-table and lighted the lamp.

"You know," he said, "that there are many men near here--that they can
trap us in this house?"

"I don't think," she answered, "that they will come to this house