ith
you."

Her fingers closed upon his arm. "Please don't quarrel with Dr.
Kieff about it!" she said nervously. "It won't happen again."

She felt him stiffen still further at her words. "It certainly
won't," he said briefly, "Tell me, have you got any of the infernal
stuff by you?"

She glanced up at him, startled by the question. "Of course I
haven't!" she said.

His eyes held a glitter that was almost bestial. She dropped her
hand from, his arm as if she had received an electric shock. He
got up instantly.

"Very well. I will leave you now. You had better go to bed."

"I must see Guy first," she objected.

"I am attending to Guy," he said.

That opened her eyes. She started up, facing him, a sudden sharp
misgiving at her heart. "Burke! You! Where--is Dr. Kieff?"

He uttered a grim, exultant sound that made her quiver. "He is on
his way back to Ritzen--or Brennerstadt. He didn't mention which."

"Ah!" Her hands were tightly clasped upon her breast. "What--what
have you done to him?" she panted.

Burke had risen to his feet. "I have--helped him on his way,
that's all," he said.

She tried to stand up also, but the moment she touched the ground,
she reeled. He caught her, and held her, facing him. His eyes
shone with a glow as of molten metal,

"Do you think," he said, breathing deeply, "that I would suffer
that accursed fiend to drag my wife--my wife--down into that
infernal slough?"

She was trembling from head to foot; her knees doubled under her,
but he held her up. The barely repressed violence of his speech
was perceptible in his hold also. She had no strength to meet it.

"But what of Guy?" she whispered voicelessly. "He will die!"

"Guy!" he said, and in the word there was a bitterness
indescribable. "Is be to be weighed in the balance against you?"

She was powerless to reason with him, and perhaps it was as well
for her that this was so, for he was in no mood to endure
opposition. His wrath seemed to beat about her like a storm-blast.
But yet he held her up, and after a moment, seeing her weakness, he
softened somewhat.

"There! Lie down again!" he said, and lowered her to the bed.
"I'll see to Guy. Only remember," he stooped over her, and to her
strained senses he loomed gigantic, "if you ever touch that stuff
again, my faith in you will be gone. And where there is no trust,
you can't expect--honour."

The words seemed to pierce her, but he straightened him