She wrung her hands and his dark eyes seemed to pierce her very soul.  She felt faint and sank on a bench.

“Come, will you accept, Margaret?”

“No, no, I cannot!”

“But think of what is before you.”

“If I tried to escape, they would soon be on my track—­”

“No, I can prevent that.”

“How?”

“Because the world will know that you are innocent.”

She gave a start and looked at him wildly, pleadingly.

“Then you know the real murderer?” she panted.

“If I answer that question, will you become my wife?”

Again she shrank back.

“You know the murderer,” she repeated.  “Perhaps you committed the foul deeds yourself.”

He took a step back as if struck a blow.  Then he recovered quickly and smiled a bitter smile.

“No, I was not near the place, I can prove it.  Besides, your folks and myself were on good terms.  There is somebody else, who was around the house when the affair happened—­somebody you know well, a person who would know all about the drug with which your father and Mrs. Langmore were killed.”

“Who was it?”

“Will you consent to marry me?”

“Tell me first.”

“No, afterwards.”

“You are fooling me.”

“I swear I am not, Margaret.  Marry me, and I will clear you as surely as the sun is shining.”

“And if I refuse?”

He came and caught her by the arm, his face blazing with sudden passion.

“Do not dare to do that!  Don’t you understand the matter?  You are in my power—­in my power absolutely.  I can hand you over to the police whenever I will.”

“That will not be such a hardship.  I said I was going back.”

“Bah!  If I tell them that I caught you, that you begged me to let you get away—­that you even said you would marry me, if I would aid you, what then?  Everybody will think you guilty, and Raymond Case will never come near you again.”

“You—­you monster!”

“Perhaps I am a monster when aroused.  You had better think this matter over.”

“I do not want to think it over.  My mind is made up.  I shall never marry you, never, no matter what happens.  I loathe and despise you!”

There was a moment of silence, and his dark face turned a sickly white and then red.  He breathed heavily through his set teeth.

“You mean that?” he said finally, his eyes shining like those of a serpent.

“I do.”

He glared at her steadily.  Then, in a burst of rage, he caught her by the throat and threw her backward to the floor.  She offered no resistance, and pausing in his madness he realized that she had swooned away.

“Fainted!” he hissed between his set teeth.  “I wish she was dead!  Curse her and her beauty!”

He waited, and as she did not return to consciousness, he picked her up, and placed her on the bed.  Then he hurried outside: