These were the first words uttered by the girl when she opened her eyes. Her hands were stained with blood from cuts made by the glass. She gazed at the blood, and grew suddenly deathly pale. "My God! he has tried to murder me!" Then she came to her feet, flinging her tangled golden hair about wildly, and shrank to the far corner of the room. "You have nothing to fear from me, Miss Osborne," said Dyke. "I am your friend." "And Hubert's friend?" "Yes, Hubert's friend, too." "Who did this, then?" She held up her bleeding hands. He tried to explain, and she seemed to understand partially, so much so as to lose her fear of the detective. She began to laugh soon, and the late adventure seemed to pass entirely from her mind. Dyke was glad to have it so. "Will you not lie down and rest?" he said presently. "We have a long journey to go in the morning." "Where? To Hubert?" "Yes, to Hubert." Her great blue eyes regarded him wistfully, and a throb of pain entered his heart at thought of the beautiful girl's misfortune. There was growing in his heart a dangerous feeling, one that boded no good to Harper Elliston, should that man prove to be as he now believed, the Hubert Vander of the mad girl's dreams. "Take me to Hubert now, kind sir. I know you can do so, and I shall die if he does not keep his word with me. He will never betray a poor girl--such a gentleman, and so good? Yes, I will do anything to please you, for it will bring dear Hubert back." She went up and laid both hands on the shoulders of the detective, and looked so mournfully into his face as to touch the tenderness in his nature deeply. His heart bled for the girl who had been the victim of a villain's wiles. "Sit down and rest, Miss Osborne; we will try and find Hubert in the morning." "You are very kind." She seemed gentle and subdued now. It was the calm after the storm. Dyke saw that he was not recognized, however, and the madness was not gone from the poor girl's brain. It was a very sad case, indeed. Several stools were in the room, and some blankets hung against the further wall, proving that some one had lately occupied the cabin. Undoubtedly it had been used as a hiding-place for outlaws, and it was a question in the mind of the detective as to how soon the cabin would be revisited. The presence of the insane girl necessarily altered his plans somewhat. He could not leave her to perish in the woods. Removing the blankets from the wall, Dyke Darrel improvised a bed for the poor girl, and induced her to lie thereon. He then replenished the fire with some dry sticks that lay beside the stove, since the night air was chill, and sat himself upon the floor, with his head reclining against the logs. Before doing this, however, he had taken the precaution to secure the only door with a wooden latch that had been made for the purpose. The window, of course, he was unable to secure.