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"Yes It seemed his father had known the way and had told hie; and when the officers were ready to start he ith theht road at once, although the directions were fearfully complicated"

"If only you had known----"

"Do you think I don't say that to myself day after day?" Anstice's broas pearled with sweat "If I had had the faintest idea there was any chance of a rescue----"

"I know, I know!" The otheryou"--Anstice flushed hotly--"I' wasthe tragedynow" Anstice's tone was icy "The thing's happened, the mistake is made and can't be unmade Only, if you think you could have let her fall into the hands of those fanatics--well, I couldn't, that's all"

"Sheshe asked you toto save her froh his own life depended upon it

"Yes I shouldn't have ventured to shoot her without her perhastly pleasantry into which exasperation had led hiot on "

Cheniston, who had turned a sickly white beneath his bronze, looked at him fiercely

"I' all allowances for you," he said between his teeth, "but I can't stand , you know Suppose you tell ain between you"

Without more ado Anstice complied

"Miss Ryder made me promise that if the sun should rise before any help came to us I would shoot her with my own hand so that she should not have to face death--or worse--at the hands of our eneht be--worse?"

"Yes My father was a doctor in China at the ti," said Anstice with apparent irrelevance "And as a boy I heard stories of--of atrocities to women--which haunted me for years On my soul, Cheniston"--he spoke with a sincerity which the other lad, to do Miss Ryder the service she asked me"

Twice Cheniston tried to speak, and twice his dry lips refused their office At last he conquered his weakness