“I swear to you that it is not anywhere about me,” she said. “As soon as I made a copy of it I went and hid it, though I could not then have told what made me do it. Now I know,” she added, thoughtfully. He saw that she was speaking only truth, and in great perplexity he sat down to think. “Is it in this room?” he asked, at length. “I shall not tell you,” Editha answered, her courage beginning to rise as he became discouraged. “Is it in this house?” “I shall not tell you,” she repeated. “You’re a—plucky piece,” he muttered between his teeth, and fixing his fierce eyes again upon her in the strange way she had noticed before. They seemed to transfix her, and a shuddering sensation pervaded her frame whenever she met them. “Do you mean to brave me and risk the consequences?” he demanded. “If you ever gain that paper it will be through your own efforts alone. I shall never _tell_ you where it is,” she replied, slowly and firmly. He acted for a moment as if undecided what to do next. Then he took up the letter she had been writing Earle and read it through. She could not help this, of course, but her cheeks burned and her eyes flashed indignantly as she thought of the tender little passages that she had thrown in now and then, and that had been intended for her lover’s eye alone. She had told him a good deal of her adventure, and how that, as soon as she had copied it, she had hidden the precious original; but strangely enough she never mentioned even to him _where_, but said that no one but herself knew of its hiding-place, and to-morrow she intended taking it to Mr. Felton to see what he advised about it. “Aha!” said the wretch, as he read this; “no one knows anything about the precious document but yourself?” “No.” “And to-morrow you were intending to tell some one else about it,” he said, rattling the letter he held in his hand. “Yes.” “And you are sure _nothing_ will make you give it to _me_?” “Never!” “Then there is but one thing left for me to do,” he muttered, striding angrily toward her. He seized both her hands in his, and again fixed his cruel eye upon hers. For one moment she looked defiance at him, though she was so frightened by his manner that she had no power to cry out, nor make any effort to release herself from his hold; the next her expression changed, and her eyes began to droop. “_Look at me!_” he commanded, bending nearer to her. She obeyed, and gazed into his face as if suddenly fascinated. For a moment he held her glance, while she felt as if all her will-power was forsaking her. He made a few passes over her head and face, touched her upon the pit of the stomach, and she instantly became like a reed in his hands. He had mesmerized her. CHAPTER XXX FLOWN Yes, the strange man had mesmerized Editha Dalton.