"A Daize, yous a da know I beez a kind to you," and he took hold of her arms. "Let a da go Eesa say hic. Let a da go da kid." "No, no!" Constance cried, as she resisted his effort to separate them. "You shall not have my darling! You shall not take her again." "Take your villainous hands off!" ordered Virginia, and at the same time she dealt him a stinging blow in the face, which caused him to loose his hold on Dorothy and stagger back. At that moment, too, he was startled by footsteps on the roof. He paused with a confused idea whether the sound on the roof had not really emanated from Rutley in the other room. Concluding in favor of the latter, he continued: "Yous a da defy a me eh, hic, sacramente! Eesa mak a da let a go da kid, or eesa break a da arm." Meanwhile Virginia had placed herself between Constance and Jack and, drawing a revolver from under her jacket, leveled it at him. Utterly reckless of her own danger, and her eyes ablaze with daring she exclaimed in a voice low and thrilling with intense determination, "Stand where you are, you vile epitome of a man! Dare try to bar our way out, and witness heaven, I'll rid the earth of a scoundrel too long infesting it!" A quaking pause followed, more trying to her nerves than the peril of the situation itself, and she backed toward the door. Her action provoked an exclamation from Jack. "God, the girl's game!" He stood mentally measuring the space that separated them, while a cunning leer developed on his face. He was about to spring, when Sam's shuffling on the roof became distinct. "Another accomplice! God protect the child!" murmured Virginia. And then in the moment of her dismay, Jack sprang forward and grasped her pistol hand. She fired, but the excitement had unnerved her, and the bullet went wide of its mark. In the struggle that ensued he forced her down on her knees, wrenched the weapon from her hand. As he was placing it in his pocket, it slipped from his grasp and slid along the floor, where it lay beyond his reach, near the partition door. Then he leered at her, and pinioned her hands behind her. "Now kiss a da me." Notwithstanding the danger of her position, she managed to suppress her terror, and she exclaimed defiantly, "Never!" and with one concentrated desperate effort in which all the suppleness, strength and agility of youth were called into action, succeeded in breaking his grasp, and sprang to her feet. Deprived of her revolver, yet she had foreseen such a contingency, and had provided a last means of defense. She produced a small dagger from her corsage. Her fingers tightened convulsively around the handle, and she said in a trembling voice: "Back, you ruffian! The point is poisoned! Beware!" The action was so quick, and the blade glittered aloft with such deadly intent, that Jack leaped back.