V A MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE 89
XVI THE DISCOMFITURE OF SIR JOHN 96
XVII THE CHANGE IN "ALCIDE" 103
XVIII ANNABEL AND "ALCIDE" 109
XIX "THIS IS NOT THE END" 115
XX ANNA'S SURRENDER 121
XXI HER SISTER'S SECRET 126
XXII AN OLD FOOL 134
XXIII MONTAGUE HILL SEES LIGHT AT LAST 138
XXIV A CASE FOR THE POLICE 144
XXV THE STEEL EDGE OF THE TRUTH 150
XXVI ANNABEL IS WARNED 156
XXVII JOHN FERRINGHAM, GENTLEMAN 162
XXVIII THE HISSING OF "ALCIDE" 169
XXIX MONTAGUE HILL PLAYS THE GAME 174
XXX SIR JOHN'S NECKTIE 178
XXXI ANNA'S TEA PARTY 183
XXXII SIX MONTHS AFTER 188

ANNA THE ADVENTURESS

_Chapter I_

THE CARPET-KNIGHT AND THE LADY

The girl paused and steadied herself for a moment against a field
gate. Her breath came fast in little sobbing pants. Her dainty shoes
were soiled with dust and there was a great tear in her skirt. Very
slowly, very fearfully, she turned her head. Her cheeks were the
colour of chalk, her eyes were filled with terror. If a cart were
coming, or those labourers in the field had heard, escape was
impossible.

The terror faded from her eyes. A faint gleam of returning colour gave
her at once a more natural appearance. So far as the eye could reach,
the white level road, with its fringe of elm-trees, was empty. Away
off in the fields the blue-smocked peasants bent still at their toil.
They had heard nothing, seen nothing. A few more minutes, and she was
safe.

Yet before she turned once more to resume her flight she schooled
herself with an effort to look where it had happened. A dark mass of
wreckage, over which hung a slight mist of vapour, lay half in the
ditch, half across the hedge, close under a tree from the trunk of
which the bark had been torn and stripped. A few yards further off
something grey, inert, was lying, a huddled-up heap of humanity
twisted into a strange unnatural shape. Again the chalky pall