"By the dispensation of an inscrutable, but just Providence, the blackguard's trail is blazed--the trap is sprung and you cannot escape!"

Rutley's eyes snapped fire. He saw that a policy of sneering and bullying persuasion to aid him would fail ignominiously. He must use force. His aspect became black and threatening.

"d.a.m.n you!" he hissed. "See here, moments are precious. The game too desperate. Beware! You must find a place of concealment for me. The loft has storerooms. Come, and in the darkness of tonight you must aid me to clear from the premises."

"Never!" she resolutely exclaimed, her eyes ablaze with indignation.

"Soft! Not so loud, my fair partner," Rutley cautioned. "You led me into this sc.r.a.pe. You must help me out of it."

"Let me pa.s.s!" And she motioned for him to stand aside.

He did not move.

"Do you deny me?" she said, sternly.

"Not so fast, my dear. I intend to keep you near me, as a hostage for my escape. No harm shall befall you if you are tractable," he went on.

"And I again warn you that you must speak guardedly and softly or I shall be compelled to gag you and bind you and carry you to a place of concealment. Oh, I'll see to it that you shall not have the satisfaction of betraying my hiding place."

"Incarnate monster; dare you imprison me?"

"Only for a few hours, until the dead of night blackens all objects alike--then I shall go forth, leaving a note to announce your hiding place. Do you prefer to be hidden in a trunk, or shall it be among the old rummage in the loft?" Though his manner of address was faultlessly polite, his face was as colorless and impa.s.sive as marble, and his voice low, calculating and cold.

Virginia paled as she took in the meaning of this purpose, and her voice quivered with a note of fear, as drawing her slender form erect in semblance of defiance she said: "Would you strike down a defenseless girl?"

"I am troubled with no qualms of conscience when dealing with an enemy, be that enemy man, woman or a scorpion. Come! We have wasted too much time already."

He stepped lightly toward her.

Virginia antic.i.p.ated his move and placed the table between them. Many small articles incident to a lady's toilet were on the table. Rutley perceived that should the table be upset in a scuffle, he could not hope for time to gather up and rearrange the toilet articles, and then the spilt powders and perfumes on the carpet would surely indicate a struggle having occurred in the room.

Virginia was also alert to the importance of the table in the situation. Her fine instinct of the purport of his thoughts quickened her measure of defense. She grasped the edge of the table with both her hands. Rutley saw her purpose, drew back and side-stepped.

Virginia also side-stepped, but kept close to the table and directly opposite him. She realized that the danger of her position was very great.

In the cabin she had been armed and prepared for an extreme emergency.

Now she was without defensive weapons of any kind save her native wit, her courage and the table to which she clung.

Never taking his eyes from her, Rutley stood for a moment, indecisive and silent. Yet his mind was working furiously.

"A woman stands in my way," he inaudibly muttered with clinched teeth.

"Time is pressing. I will force her into submission!"

The intense strain on his nerves drew a cold dew of perspiration that glistened on his brow. Slowly he drew the revolver from his pocket.

Slowly he raised it and pointed it at her, then hissed, as he glared at her: "Remove your hands from the table and a.s.sist me to escape."

Virginia again drew herself erect, her eyes sparkling with defiance and her face aglow with courage.

"I know my death would only add one more crime to your record," she said, with a faint quiver in her soft voice, and after a slight pause, she went on more steadily: "But you dare not shoot and your threats are vain."

As he gazed on her slight form drawn erect; those pure, brave, steadfast, blue eyes; those features, delicate and tense with a sense of the danger of her position, she affected him strongly; thrilled him with an admiration which, with all his virile power and hardened senses, he could not mask. "You are daring a desperate man," he resumed. "One who means to halt at no crime to secure his flight to liberty."

The softened expression of his features, softened in spite of himself, led Virginia to think that his words were not meant to be taken too seriously, and so hope and fear alternated with amazing swiftness on her expressive face, which at last settled into a look of credulity and prompted her to hazard a smile at his threat.

"Beware!" he hissed, struggling to appear fierce. "Do not mistake me!"

"Oh, no; I do not mistake you," she replied, again smiling faintly, "for I know you are too much of a man to redden your hands with the life of a puny, defenseless girl."

The artless play of her features to entice him from his desperate purpose was exquisite, and not without temporary success.

"Her witchery is unnerving me," he silently muttered, as he felt his will-power was dominant no longer.

As their eyes remained fastened on each other he felt an awe seize him, and he for the moment forgot his design. He drew back and said, almost submissively: "G.o.d, you are brave, and beautiful as brave. I can't harm you." And he slowly lowered the revolver.

Even then a sudden recovery from his weakness developed a new plan of attack. Virginia's unerring instinct, however, warned her to mistrust his flattering declaration. "It's a subterfuge," she thought, "cunningly devised to draw me away from the table." She remained silent, but more watchful, if possible, than before.

On abandoning a bullying policy, Rutley had moved step by step toward the table opposite to Virginia, and finally placed his left hand on it. His a.s.sumed admiration was well sustained and his changed line of persuasion, though its sincerity she doubted, promised in the end success.

"The wrongs I have done," he continued, "had better not have been done, I acknowledge, but they are mended. Worse might have been. Our meeting in this room was accidental. My presence in this house is known only to you. Will you aid me to escape?"

"Aid you to escape!" she repeated, in tones that had lost their agitation, and which now seemed natural and only to carry a note of indignation. "You, the man who nearly wrecked my brother's home, betrayed his trust and would have robbed him of his life. You, the man who kidnapped his child, caused his wife to lose her reason, and whose death may yet add murder to your other crimes--dare ask me to help you escape?"

"Yes," he slowly replied. And feeling that his hand rested firmly on the table, he began cautiously to lean forward, meanwhile saying in a soft, insinuating voice: "I dare ask you to help me escape, for I mistake if in a nature where such courage and gentleness exist there beats a heart irresponsive to the cry of distress.

"I am down, and standing on the threshold of a long term of imprisonment. Again I appeal to you and offer this weapon as a pledge of good faith," and he laid the revolver on the table.

The tension on Virginia's nerves relaxed, her voice became steadier, calmer and more natural. "Why did you vilify the character of Constance, a frail, innocent woman, whose piety and goodness made her incapable of doing you harm by thought, word or deed?"

"Revenge on Thorpe," he replied, "for closing my office."

As the words slowly issued from between his lips, his weight on the table increased--he felt his control of it was now sure.

Virginia's eyes searched him thoroughly, and aside from the fact that flattery was distasteful to her, his cold, calculating, unemotional eyes glittering with a sinister purpose, startled her and confirmed her impression of his insincerity.

To maintain a safe distance, but still clinging to the table, she instinctively drew backward, suspicious of some sudden movement, but she made no effort to secure the revolver. Rutley noticed the change and coolly pressed forward.

Virginia drew further backward. She saw through his artifice and once more began to fear him. The strain on her nerves was becoming severe and her countenance warmed with contending emotions. He had pleaded for aid to escape and expressed himself as sorry for his misdeeds. Yet she believed his protestations were not sincere.

Nevertheless, considering how much she was in his power, the great scandal his testimony in court would create, the complete undoing of all his wicked schemes, and the possibility of him leading a better life, was fast weighing in his favor, besides only brute revenge would be gratified by his long imprisonment, and his punishment, therefore, only an empty satisfaction.

Rutley read her thoughts and a cunning smile played about his mouth.

He never really intended to trust his liberty in her keeping, and since she was the only person with actual knowledge of his whereabouts, he did not propose to jeopardize his chance of escape by allowing her freedom. For his own safety, he was bound to conceal her as well as himself, at least until darkness set in. His humble appeal was but a ruse to gain her sympathy, and his simulated penitence for his wickedness was an artifice, but it succeeded in touching the tender cords of the girl's heart.

Her vigilance abated. Her hand slipped from the table. She straightened up and cast her eyes to the floor, as one often does when mentally absorbed in weighing the potency of some great question. The moment he had maneuvered for, and waited for, and watched for, had arrived.

The spring of a cat upon an unsuspecting mouse could not have been swifter, more sudden or unerring. The cloven hoof was revealed. Before she had time to even guess at his purpose, his hand was upon her mouth, while his other arm was thrown around her form, binding her arms to her sides. He forced her into a wicker chair that stood conveniently near and held her down sideways with the aid of his knee.

This method permitted him to withdraw his arm from around her form and to s.n.a.t.c.h a doily from the table which he quickly wadded and forced into her mouth, gagging her effectively. Then his eyes swept the room for something that would serve as a cord to bind her.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Rutley--"I could even kiss those red, ripe, cherry lips."]