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As they walked back to the town Hugh's heart sank within him

"She will die," he muttered bitterly to himself "She'll die, and I shall never learn the truth of the poor guv'nor's sad end, or the reason why I a forced to h!" declared his friend "And it's infernally hard on you that just at the very moment when you could have learnt the truth that shot was fired"

"Do you think the woh asked "Do you think that she had repented, and was about to try and atone for what she had done by confessing the whole affair?"

"Yes That is just the view I take," answered Brock "Of course, we have no idea what part she played in the business But e with Louise is being forced upon you"

"In that case, then, it seems more than likely that I've been followed here to Monte Carlo, and my movements watched But why has she been shot? Why did not her ene the past few days Perhaps the shot which hit her was really intended for me?"

"I don't think so There is a e with Louise If you died, your ene That see man in dismay

"Mademoiselle alone knows that, and it was undoubtedly her intention to warn you"

"Yes But if she dies I shall renorance," he declared in a hard voice "The whole affair is so tangled that I can see nothing clearly--only that my refusal to marry Louise will ain!"

Walter Brock, older and more experienced, was equally mystified The pessimistic attitude of the three doctors who had attended the injured wo The injury to the head caused by the assailant's bullet was, they declared, erous Indeed, the three medical men h the palht with flowers, back to their hotel, wondering whether news of the tragedy had yet got abroad But they heard nothing of it, and it seemed true, as Walter Brock had declared, that the police s in the Principality

Though they were unconscious of it, atheir absence fro thee and some of the staff