“Ah, I can see by your face that you hate him! It is well. That is something. It is but little, I know, after all I have wished for--but it is something for me to treasure--something for me to take back with me to the one sacred little spot in this beastly world of men and women.” “Yvonne, you are the most incomprehensible------” “Am I not beautiful, Frederic? Tell me!” She came quite close to him. “You are the most beautiful woman in all the world,” he said abjectly. “And I have wasted all my beauty--I have lent it to unloveliness, and it has not been destroyed! It is still with me, is it not? I have not lost it in------” “You are beautiful beyond words--beyond anything I have ever imagined,” said he, suddenly passing his hand over his brow. “You would have loved me if it had not been for Lydia?” “I couldn't have helped myself. I--I fear I--faltered in my--are you still trying to tempt me? Are you still asking me to go away with you?” A hoarse cry came from the doorway behind them--a cry of pain and anger that struck terror to their souls. CHAPTER XIX Transfixed, they watched James Brood take two or three steps into the room. At his back was the swarthy Hindu, his eyes gleaming like coals of fire in the shadowy light. “James!” fell tremulously from the lips of Yvonne. She swayed toward him as Ranjab grasped his arm from behind. Frederic saw the flash of something bright as it passed from the brown hand to the white one. He did not at once comprehend. “It happened once,” came hoarsely from the throat of James Brood. “It shall not happen again. Thank you, Ranjab.” Then Frederic knew. The Hindu had slipped a revolver into his master's hand! “It gives me great pleasure, Yvonne, to relieve you of that worthless thing you call your life.” As he raised his arm Frederic sprang forward with a shout of horror. Scarcely realising what he did, he hurled Yvonne violently to one side. It was all over in the twinkling of an eye. There was a flash, the crash of an explosion, a puff of smoke, and the smell of burned powder. Frederic stood perfectly still for an instant, facing the soft cloud that rose from the pistol-barrel, an expression of vague amazement in his face. Then his hand went uncertainly to his breast. Already James Brood had seen the red blotch that spread with incredible swiftness--blood-red against the snowy white of the broad shirt bosom. Glaring with wide-open eyes at the horrid spot, he stood there with the pistol still levelled. “Good God, father, you've--why, you've------” struggled from Frederic's writhing lips, and then his knees sagged; an instant later they gave way with a rush and he dropped heavily to the floor. There was not a sound in the room. Suddenly Brood made a movement, quick and spasmodic. At the same instant Ranjab flung himself forward and grasped his master's arm. He had turned the revolver upon himself! The muzzle was almost at his temple when the Hindu seized his hand in a grip of iron.