After the violent manner in which she had been jerked into the untenanted house, she had not doubted that she might meet with further rough treatment. She knew that Leslie Cairns was quite apt to go as far as she dared. She resolved to show, no fear of her captors. She disliked intensely the idea of hand to hand encounter with them. It was utterly beneath her standards. Still she did not hesitate to warn them that she would defend herself if forced to do so. Once she was free of them she had not decided what she would do, further than that she would set off for the gymnasium post haste. Even before the unmasking her chums would miss her. If only she could reach the dance prior to that! "S--hh! Keep your voices down!" warned a domino who had taken no part in the ill-natured discussion. "I believe you can be heard clear out in the street." "Mind your business," snapped the Scarlet Mask. "I pay the rent here. It's nobody's business how much noise we make. Who amounts to a button on this alley? Don't be so cowardly. Even Bean has more nerve than you." This produced a laugh at "Bean's" expense. Behind her enforced veil Marjorie could not repress a noiseless chuckle. How she wished that someone would hear her captors and come to her assistance. No such thing was likely to happen. The admonishing domino, hitherto peaceful, now took umbrage. "You can't tell me to mind my own business or call me a coward," she stormily hurled at the scarlet executive. "You make me exceedingly weary!" Her further candid opinion was not calculated to flatter. "What you need is a midnight session here with Miss Bean," declared the Scarlet Mask, with a touch of cool purpose which caused the angry domino to flare up afresh. "Try it, and see what happens to you," was her instant retort. "Oh, forget it. I merely said you needed it. I didn't say you would be left here. You are the last person I expected would go back on me." This with intent to mollify. "Well, you shouldn't have----" The somewhat placated rebel suddenly paused. "Hark!" She held up a hand for silence. "I thought I heard a noise." "Someone going by in the street," the Scarlet Mask asserted, after listening attentively for a moment. At the ejaculation "Hark!" the eyes of the other maskers had been directed with one accord to the door. After a brief interval of uneasy silence the discussion regarding the prisoner was resumed. The recently ruffled avenger who had given the alarm still continued to watch the door. She was not satisfied with her leader's explanation of the sound. Thus she was the first to note a shadow fall athwart the doorway. Her eyes widened with fear to behold an odd, black, winged shape hover an instant on the threshold, then flit noiselessly into the room. It did not advance on the group collected in one corner of the room. It lurched and dipped toward the windows like a huge sable hawk about to swoop down on a chicken yard. CHAPTER XXIII. APPARITION OF THE NIGHT.