"I do," muttered Gurn. "His eyes sought you, and a pistol was pointed at your heart! He would have fired, but I sprang and struck him down! And then I strangled him!" Lady Beltham's eyes were fixed on the man's hands, that she still held between her own. "And I saw the muscles in these hands swell up beneath the skin as they tightened on his throat!" "I killed him!" groaned the man. But Lady Beltham, swept by a surge of passion, sprang up and sought his lips. "Oh, Gurn!" she sobbed--"my darling!" * * * * * "Listen," said Gurn harshly, after a pause of anxious silence. "I had to see you to-night, for who knows if to-morrow----" Lady Beltham shrank at the words, but Gurn went on unheeding. "The police are after me. Of course I have made myself almost unrecognisable, but twice just lately I have been very nearly caught." "Do you think the police have any accurate idea of what happened?" Lady Beltham asked abruptly. "No," said Gurn after a moment's hesitation. "They think I killed him with the mallet. They have not found out that I had to strangle him. As far as I know, they found no marks of my hands on his throat. At all events, they could not have been clear, for his collar--you understand." The man spoke of his crime without the least sign of remorse or repugnance now; his only dread was lest he should be caught. "But, none the less, they have identified me. That detective Juve is very clever." "We did not have enough presence of mind," Lady Beltham said despairingly. "We ought to have led them to suspect someone else: have made them think that it was, say, Fantômas." "Not that!" said Gurn nervously; "don't talk about Fantômas! We did all we could. But the main thing now is that I should escape them. I had better get away,--across the Channel,--across the Atlantic,--anywhere. But--would you come too?" Lady Beltham did not hesitate. She flung her arms around the neck of the man who had murdered her own husband, and yielded to a paroxysm of wild passion. "You know that I am yours, wherever you may go. Shall it be to-morrow? We can meet--you know where--and arrange everything for your flight." "My flight?" said Gurn, with reproachful emphasis on the pronoun. "For our flight," she replied, and Gurn smiled again. "Then that is settled," he said. "I have seen you, and I am happy! Good-bye." He made a step towards the door, but Lady Beltham stayed him gently. "Wait," she said. "Walter shall let you out of the house. Do not say anything: I will explain; I will invent some story to satisfy the servants as to your coming here, and also to justify your being allowed to go." They clung to one another in a parting caress. Lady Beltham tore herself away. "Till to-morrow!" she whispered.