home for a week. I'll fix it up with Norberg. No tellin' what a guy like
that's goin' t' do. Send your brother-in-law down here if you want to
make it a family affair, and between us, we'll see this thing through."

I looked up at Von Gerhard. He was nodding approval. It all seemed so
easy, so temptingly easy. To run away! Not to face him until I was
safe in the shelter of Norah's arms! I stood up, resolve lending me new
strength and courage.

"I am going. I know it isn't brave, but I can't be brave any longer. I'm
too tired--too old--"

I grasped the hand of each of those men who had stood by me so staunchly
in the year that was past. The words of thanks that I had on my lips
ended in dry, helpless sobs. And because Blackie and Von Gerhard looked
so pathetically concerned and so unhappy in my unhappiness my sobs
changed to hysterical laughter, in which the two men joined, after one
moment's bewildered staring.

So it was that we did not hear the front door slam, or the sound of
footsteps in the hall. Our overstrained nerves found relief in laughter,
so that Peter Orme, a lean, ominous figure in the doorway looked in upon
a merry scene.

I was the first to see him. And at the sight of the emaciated figure,
with its hollow cheeks and its sunken eyes all terror and hatred left
me, and I felt only a great pity for this wreck of manhood. Slowly I
went up to him there in the doorway.

"Well, Peter?" I said.

"Well, Dawn old girl," said he "you're looking wonderfully fit. Grass
widowhood seems to agree with you, eh?"

And I knew then that my dread dream had come true.

Peter advanced into the room with his old easy grace of manner. His eyes
glowed as he looked at Blackie. Then he laughed, showing his even, white
teeth. "Why, you little liar!" he said, in his crisp, clear English.
"I've a notion to thwack you. What d' you mean by telling me my wife's
gone? You're not sweet on her yourself, eh?"

Von Gerhard stifled an exclamation, and Orme turned quickly in his
direction. "Who are you?" he asked. "Still another admirer? Jolly
time you were having when I interrupted." He stared at Von Gerhard
deliberately and coolly. A little frown of dislike came into his face.
"You're a doctor, aren't you? I knew it. I can tell by the hands, and
the eyes, and the skin, and the smell. Lived with 'em for ten years,
damn them! Dawn, tell these fellows they're excused, will you? And by
the way, you don't seem very happy to see me?"