. . . .

There came a crash of thunder nearer and more menacing than any
that had gone before, startling her almost with a sense of doom,
setting every pulse in her body beating. She uncovered her face
and sat up.

Sullenly the echoes rolled away, yet they left behind a strange
impression that possessed her with an uncanny force from which she
could not shake herself free--a feeling that amounted to actual
conviction that some presence lurked without in the storm, alert
and stealthy, waiting for something.

The window was at the side of her bed. She had but to draw aside
the curtain and look out. It was within reach of her hand. But
for many breathless seconds she dared not.

What it was that stood outside she had no idea, but the thought of
Kieff was in her mind--Kieff the vampire who was dead.

She felt herself grow cold all over. She had only to cross the
narrow room and knock on the main wall of the bungalow to summon
Merston. He would come at a moment's notice, she knew. But she
felt powerless to move. Sheer terror bound her limbs.

The thunder slowly ceased, and there followed a brief stillness
through which the beating of her heart clamoured wildly. Yet she
was beginning to tell herself that it was no more than a nightmare
panic that had caught her, when suddenly something knocked softly
upon the closed window beneath which she lay.

She started violently and glanced across the room, measuring the
distance to the further wall on which she herself would have to
knock to summon help.

Then, while instinctively she debated the point, summoning her
strength for the effort, there came another sound close to her--a
low voice speaking her name.

"Sylvia! Sylvia! Wake up and let me in!"

She snatched back the curtain in a second. She knew that voice.
By the shifting gleam of the lightning she saw him, looking in upon
her. Her fear vanished.

Swiftly she sprang to do his bidding. Had she ever failed to
answer any call of his? She drew back the bolts of her door, and
in a moment they were together.

The thunder roared again behind him as he entered, but neither of
them heard it. For he caught her in his arms with a hungry sound,
and as she clung to him nearly fainting with relief, he kissed her,
straining her to him gasping wild words of love.

The touch of those hot, devouring lips awoke her. She had never
felt the slightest fear of Guy before that moment, but the
fierceness of his hold