e was dead, from heavy hands
to feet, and the body which I could hardly have dragged down to the
stream again.

I waited for the end. I sat beside Jacqueline, holding her hand with
one of mine, and my revolver in the other. There was a faint flutter
at her wrist. I fancied that it had grown stronger during the past
half-hour.

But I was unprepared to hear her whisper to me, and when she spoke I
was alert in a moment.

"Paul!" she said faintly.

"Jacqueline!"

"Paul! Bend down. I want to speak to you. Do you know I have been
conscious for a long time, my dear? I have been thinking. Are you
distressed because of me?"

"My dear!" I said; and that was all that I could say. I clasped her
cold little hand tightly in mine.

"I don't know whether I shall live, Paul," she went on. "But now
things have become much clearer than they were. When you wanted to
take me through the tunnel I knew that you were wrong. I knew that
even if we found my father I must still send you away, my dear. God
does not mean for us to be for one another. Don't you see why? It is
because there is the blood of a dead man between us that cannot be
wiped away.

"That is the cause of our misfortunes here, and they will never end,
even if you can beat Leroux--because of that. So it could never have
been. Yes, I knew that last night when I lay by you, and I was
thinking of it and praying hard that I might see clearly."

Her voice broke off from weakness, and for a long time she lay there,
and I clasped her hand and waited, and my eyes searched the space
beyond the bags. How long would they delay?

Presently Jacqueline spoke again.

"Do you know, Paul, I don't think life is such a good thing as it used
to seem," she said. "I think that I could bear a great deal that I
would once have thought impossible. I think I could yield to Leroux
and be his wife to save your life, Paul."

"No, Jacqueline."

"Yes, Paul. If I live, my duty is with my father. He needs me, and he
would never leave the _chateau_ now that his fears have grown so
strong. And, though he might come to no harm, I cannot leave him. And
you must leave me, Paul, because--because of what is between us. You
must go to Leroux and tell him so. You love me, Paul?"

"Always, Jacqueline," I whispered.

She put her arms about my neck.

"I love you, Paul," she said. "It seems so easy to say it in the dark,
and it used to be so hard. And I want to tell you some