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For the first few tangledinto a live horror, Dominey fancied himself back in Africa, with the hand of an enemy upon his throat Then a rush of awakened reat house, the s around the black oak four-poster on which he lay, the faint pricking of sos rolled back the curtain of unreality, brought him acute and painful consciousness of a situation alh a brave and callous man he lay still, paralysed with the fear which forbids ht of a candle, recently lit, flashed upon the bodkin-like dagger held at his throat He gazed at the thin line of glea steel, fascinated Already his skin had been broken, a few drops of blood were upon the collar of his pyja weapon--s froed to some unseen person He tried to shrink farther back upon the pillow The hand followed hilimpses now of a soft, white-sleeved ar tenser as he prepared for a snatch at those cruel fingers Then a voice came,--a slow, feminine and rather wonderful voice

"If you move," it said, "you will die Remain quite still"

Do his chances with all the cunning of the trained hunter who seeks to avoid death Reluctantly he was compelled to realise that noof that thin stiletto into his throat, if his hidden assailant should keep her word So he lay still

"Why do you want to kill me?" he asked, a little tensely

There was no reply, yet sohtly those curtains around which the arh the chink soht call out for help, and once ht

"You must be very quiet," the voice said,--that voice which it was difficult for him to believe was not the voice of a child "If you even speak above a whisper, it will be the end I wish to look at you"

A little wider the crack opened, and then he began to feel hope The hand which held the stiletto was shaking, he heard so fro of a woman astonished or terrified--and then, so suddenly that for several seconds he could not e of the circumstance, the hand with its cruel weapon ithdrawn around the curtain and a woh, softly at first, and then with a little hysterical sob thrusting its way through that incongruous note of mirth