The newcomer, meantime, had closed the door, latching it very carefully, and now, standing before it, folded his arms, staring at her with bent head.  He was a very tall man, with a rain-sodden, bell-crowned hat crushed low upon his brows, and wrapped in a long, many-caged overcoat, the skirts of which were woefully mired and torn.  All at once he laughed, very softly and musically.

“So, you would have killed me, would you, Charmian—­shot me—­like a dog?” His tone was soft as his laugh and equally musical, and yet neither was good to hear.  “So you thought you had lost me, did you, when you gave me the slip, a while ago?  Lose me?  Escape me?  Why, I tell you, I would search for you day and night—­hunt the world over until I found you, Charmian—­until I found you,” said he, nodding his head and speaking almost in a whisper.  “I would, by God!”

The woman neither moved nor uttered a word, only her breath came thick and fast, and her eyes gleamed in the shadow of her hair.

They stood facing each other, like two adversaries, each measuring the other’s strength, without appearing to be conscious of my presence; indeed, the man had not so much as looked toward me even when I had struck up the pistol.

Now, with every minute I was becoming more curious to see this man’s face, hidden as it was in the shadow of his dripping hat brim.  Yet the fire had burned low.

“You always were a spitfire, weren’t you, Charmian?” he went on in the same gentle voice; “hot, and fierce, and proud—­the flame beneath the ice—­I knew that, and loved you the better for it; and so I determined to win you, Charmian—­to win you whether you would or no.  And—­you are so strong—­so tall, and glorious, and strong, Charmian!”

His voice had sunk to a murmur again, and he drew a slow step nearer to her.

“How wonderful you are, Charmian!  I always loved your shoulders and that round, white throat.  Loved?  Worshipped them, worshipped them!  And to-night—­” He paused, and I felt, rather than saw, that he was smiling.  “And to-night you would have killed me, Charmian—­shot me—­like a dog!  But I would not have it different.  You have flouted, coquetted, scorned, and mocked me—­for three years, Charmian, and to-night you would have killed me—­and I—­would not have it otherwise, for surely you can see that this of itself must make your final surrender—­even sweeter.”

With a gesture utterly at variance with his voice, so sudden, fierce, and passionate was it, he sprang toward her with outstretched arms.  But, quick as he, she eluded him, and, before he could reach her, I stepped between them.

“Sir,” said I, “a word with you.”

“Out of my way, bumpkin!” he retorted, and, brushing one aside, made after her.  I caught him by the skirts of his long, loose coat, but, with a dexterous twist, he had left it in my grasp.  Yet the check, momentary though it was, enabled her to slip through the door of that room which had once been Donald’s, and, before he could reach it, I stood upon the threshold.  He regarded me for a moment beneath his hat brim, and seemed undecided how to act.