"What's the matter with you to-night?" demanded Farley. "Have you gone crazy?" "Perhaps. At any rate, I will compel you to listen to me." "You will compel me?" sneered the man. "And how do you propose to do that?" "Do you see this?" And Miss Hollingsworth opened her hand, revealing a small cylindrical object. "What is it?" asked Farley, curiously. "Dynamite." The man recoiled. "You're joking, Olga." "I am not. There is enough of the explosive here to tear this house to pieces." "Where did you get it? What are you going to do with it?" "Never mind where I got it. As for what I am going to do with it, that you will learn very soon. Now, Jack Farley, will you listen to me?" "Yes, yes; but give me that stuff, Olga." "Sit down." Farley obeyed, with a very pale face. "Well, what is it?" he asked. "We are going to have a settlement at last. You no longer love me, Jack Farley." "Nonsense, Olga. You know----" "I know that I am speaking the truth. You have thought me merely the creature of your will; I have let you think so, I have borne your indignities patiently----" "What indignities?" interrupted Farley. "I don't know what you are talking about." "Was it not an indignity to almost force me to assist you in abducting my rival?" "Your rival! Nonsense!" "This girl has supplanted me in your affections." "This is folly. I only did what I have to revenge myself on that kid, Allston, the girl's brother." "It is a lie, and I know it. But all will soon be over now." "What do you mean?" "Just what I say, Jack Farley." "What are you going to do?" "Explode this dynamite, and end all at once. Jack, in two minutes you, she and I will be in eternity!" "Are you stark, staring mad? Give me that stuff!" The woman laughed wildly. "No, the hour has come!" she cried. She lifted the cylinder above her head, with the evident intention of hurling it to the hard wood floor. But at that instant her arm was seized and the dynamite forced from her hand. "You have saved at least twenty lives!" gasped Farley, sinking, pale and trembling, into a chair. "Where is my sister?" demanded Al Allston--for the newcomer was he--paying no attention to his enemy's words. "She shall be restored to you," said Farley, who was thoroughly sobered by the shock. "She shall not," cried the woman. "She shall not leave this house alive!" It was plain to Al that Miss Hollingsworth was mentally deranged, and not wholly responsible for her conduct and words. "Where is she?" he repeated. "She is asleep in yonder room," said Farley, pointing to a door at the farther end of the drawing room. "Take her with you and go." The plotter seemed entirely unnerved; he was ready to surrender at once and without protest all that for which he had schemed so long.