h
he was, was quick and strong.

He caught her brutally, as he might a dog, by the neck, and threw her
into the dining-room, the door of which stood open, and, utterly
careless as to what harm he might do to her, sent the unhappy woman
sprawling onto the floor. In a second he had banged the door to and
turned the key in the lock.

He heard Estelle pick herself up and hurl herself in blind and
impotent fury against the door.

He listened as shriek after shriek of frenzy reached his ears.

Up in the tower Natalie heard these shrieks, too, and shuddered. A
horrible fear took possession of her heart that there was murder being
done below.

She sat on the edge of her bed with her hands pressed to her heart,
listening in fascinated horror.

The shrieks died away, and there was complete silence in the house for
full half an hour.

Then she heard a sudden shout, a crashing of glass and a scrambling,
tearing noise, the hideous bay of the boarhounds in the court-yard, a
scream, and a thud.

Stabbing the other noise with sharp precision came the sound of
shots.

CHAPTER XXV

Meanwhile, at the estate of Peter Vseslavitch, the day dawned clear
and fine--but upon what a scene of uproar!

All night the household had been corked up as if tight in a bottle--as
far as following the marauders was concerned; for when, a few minutes
after that last intimidating shot of Virot's, they had burst out of
the house and run quickly to the stables, it was only to discover that
all the horses were gone.

"By the ever-to-be-praised apostles!" swore Andrieff, his red beard
wagging in impotent rage, "the devils have turned the horses loose on
the _steppe_. Every box is empty!"

It was true--and almost frantic with distress Peter and the overseer
had been forced to turn back into the house to wait till day-break.

Well! there was work there for them while they waited. Paul and the
lad Alexis were soon brought back to consciousness with nothing more
serious than badly swollen and throbbing heads. But poor Baxter still
lay in a heap on the floor. He seemed not to have stirred. And Peter
thought, as he knelt over him, that he would never move again.

They lifted his sagging body to a couch and then Andrieff, who was
something of an amateur surgeon, examined him carefully.

The bullet had ploughed a furrow just above his temple; but after some
probing Andrieff decided it had passed on without penetrating the
skull. His heart w