“Did he give it you against your will?” he asked at length.

“Not altogether.”  Her voice was almost a whisper.  Her heart was beating with hard, uneven strokes.  She felt sick and faint.

Burke moved suddenly, releasing her hand.  He rose with that decision characteristic of him and walked across the room.  She heard the splash of water in a basin, and then he came back to her.  As if she had been a child, he raised her to lean against him, and proceeded very quietly to bathe her face and head with ice-cold water.

She shrank at the chill of it, but he persisted in his task, and very soon she began to feel refreshed.

“Thank you,” she murmured at last.  “I am better now.  I will get up.”

“You had better lie still for the present,” he said.  “I will send you in some supper later.”

His tone was repressive.  She could not look him in the face.  But, as he made as if he would rise, something impelled her to lay a detaining hand upon his arm.

“Please wait a minute!” she said,

He waited, and in a moment, with difficulty, she went on.

“Burke, I have done wrong, I know.  I am sorry.  Please don’t be angry with me!  I—­can’t bear it.”

There was a catch in her voice that she could not restrain.  She had a great longing to hide her face on his shoulder and burst into tears.  But something—­some inner, urgent warning—­held her back.

Burke sat quite still.  There was a touch of rigidity in his attitude.  “All right,” he said at last.  “I am not angry—­with 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,