ut, on the other hand, unless you will go heart and
soul with me, ignoring the past, you have to-day been told too much for
my safety or--_your own_. What if you should catch a serious cold
here at the House by the Lock? Unfortunately, the place is rather damp,
though so charming in many ways. You might have an attack of pneumonia.
Only fancy how the world would sympathise with the husband of so
beautiful and popular a girl as yourself if he were bereaved of you
during the honeymoon?"

"Oh, you are horrible--horrible! It is like death even to listen to
you!" cried Karine. "If only there was a soul on earth to help me--but
there's none--none!"

His answer, if he had made one, was drowned in the crashing of glass.
Better that she should be startled, even to the point of swooning,
rather than endure for another second the torture that that fiend was
inflicting upon her.

I broke in the skylight with the heavy stick which I had brought up to
the roof between my teeth. Then, with hands cut and bleeding, despite
the protection of my gloves, I swung myself down and dropped on to the
floor.

There was a cry from Karine, and a sharp exclamation of dismayed
astonishment from Wildred, for once outwitted. I had never been a match
for him in diplomacy, but when it came to a physical encounter, I had
every advantage over him, and I knew it.

He had no time to pull out the knife or revolver, for which his hand
flew to his pocket, for I was on him, taking him by the throat and
shaking him as a terrier shakes a rat.

I had not stopped even to look at Karine, and yet the vision of her pale
face and hands clasped over her bosom had flashed, lightning-like, upon
my consciousness. "Thank heaven! thank heaven!" I could hear her sob. I
hoped that she did not look--that she had closed her eyes, or covered
them with her hands, but Wildred did not give me time to make
suggestions. He was more nimble, if he was less strong, than I.

I could feel, through all his writhings, that he was trying to force me
along with him towards a certain corner of the room, and, realising it,
resolved to thwart him, whatever his object might be. I had come to the
knowledge exactly one second too late, however. He had managed to place
his foot on a bell concealed under one of the rugs on the floor, and I
heard its summons go pealing shrilly out through the house.

I remembered how I had looked for a bell in this room once before; it
was scarcely to be wond