"Oh, Constance, dear, try to be strong. Fight down this weakness. The boat is waiting. We must escape. Help me! Oh, God, help! Help!" Her voice began in a subdued, frantic appeal, and ended in a sob of heart-rending despair for succor. Like a shaft of sunshine bursting through a rift in the dark, lowering clouds of dismay, came the answer from Constance: "I will! I will! Let me think! Oh, yes, we had better go now. Lead on! Hasten!" And she arose from the seat. "Thank Heaven. The dark spot has gone," Virginia fervently exclaimed. "Her brain has cleared again." How joyfully she struck another match further to accelerate their passage. "Keep close to me, dear. Are you tired? Let me help you." And she placed her right arm about the waist of Constance, the match held forward in her left hand lighting the way. They had proceeded a few steps when the door opened. She drew back with a slight, terrified exclamation: "Oh!" Jack Shore stood in the doorway. CHAPTER XVI. The men had been ashore, had found the rope cut in several places, and the dog gone. The circumstances were so suspicious and frought with so much danger to them, that they decided upon the immediate removal of the child. On their return toward the cabin, Rutley discovered a faint glimmer of light within, and in a whisper, called Jack's attention to it. "I am sure I blew it out," Jack whispered, alarmed. "Do you think the child awakened and struck a match?" again whispered Rutley. "No; no matches within her reach. Perhaps Virginia has come. Hello! A strange boat here." "The light moves," continued Rutley, in a whisper. "I will get out here," whispered Jack, and he sprang out of the boat quietly onto the platform. "Take the boat to the other end of the cabin." As he opened the door, the profile of the women and child appeared, dimly outlined by the match light held in Virginia's hand. As she staggered back, surprised and terrified, for the moment, Jack pushed his way in, closed the door, bolted and locked it, and put the key in his pocket. Then he struck a match and lighted the lamp. [Illustration: "Virginia drew back with a slight terrified exclamation, 'Oh!' Jack Shore stood in the doorway."] After surveying the group, he gruffly laughed. "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, Signora make a da bold a break in a da house, eh? Ha, ha, ha, ha. Eesa try tak a Daize from a da nicey home, eh? Ha, ha, ha, ha." "Yes," she replied, without hesitation or a qualm of fear in her voice. "That was my intention, but the devil's emissary has blocked it." Without a trace of fear, quietly and strangely free from agitation, Constance made her way to the door, and laid her hand on the bolt to unfasten it. Jack took hold of her small, round wrist, turned her about and pushed her back a few paces. "Note a beez in a da hurry, Signora." "Who are you?" she timidly asked. "Ha, ha, ha, hic, Eesa compan-e-on say I beez a da devil," Jack laughed jeeringly.