“If I can only get money enough to leave the country, I am saved,” he said.  “If I stay here, I shall be found, and they will imprison me for years.  I had rather kill myself!

“Mr. Waymark will give us the money,” was the reply, “and we will go away together.”

“That would betray me; it would be folly to face such a risk.  If I can escape, then you shall come to me.”

“Oh, you will leave me!” she cried.  “I shall lose you, as I did before, but this time for ever!  You don’t love me, Paul!  And how can I expect you should?  But let me go as your servant.  Let me dress like a man, and follow you.  Who will notice then?”

He shook his head.

“I love you, Emily, and shall love you as long as I breathe.  To hear you speak to me like this has almost the power to make me happy.  If I had known it, I shouldn’t have stayed so long away from you; I hadn’t the courage to come, and I thought the sight of me would only be misery to you.  I have lived a terrible life, among the poorest people, getting my bread as they did; oftener starving.  Not one of my acquaintances was to be trusted.  I have not seen one face I knew since I first heard of my danger and escaped.  But I had rather live on like that than fall into the hands of the police; I should never know freedom again.  The thought maddens me with fear.”

“You are safe here, love, quite safe!” she urged soothingly.  “Who could know that you are here?  Who could know that Maud and I were living here?”

There was a tap at the door.  Mrs. Enderby started to it, turned the key, and then asked who was there.

“Emily,” said Miss Bygrave’s voice, “let me come in—­or let Paul come out here and speak to me.”

There was something unusual in the speaker’s tone; it was quick and nervous.  Paul himself went to the door, and, putting his wife’s hand aside, opened it.

“What is it?” he asked.

She beckoned him to leave the room, then whispered: 

“Some one I don’t know is at the front door.  I opened it with the chain on, and a man said he must see Mr. Enderby.”

“Can’t I go out by the back?” Paul asked, all but voiceless with terror.  “I daren’t hide in the rooms; they will search them all.  How did they know that I was here?  O God, I am lost!”

They could hear the knocking below repeated.  Paul hurried down the stairs, followed by his wife, whom Theresa in vain tried to hold back He knew the way to the door which led into the garden, and opening this, sprang into the darkness.  Scarcely had he taken a step, when strong arms seized him.

“Hold on!” said a voice.  “You must come back with me into the house.”

At the same moment there was a shriek close at hand, and, as they turned to the open door, Paul and his captor saw Emily prostrate on the threshold, and Miss Bygrave stooping over her.

“Better open the front door, ma’am,” said the police officer, “and ask my friend there to come through.  We’ve got all we want.”