He turned away so as to force himself not to hear, feeling that he was an interloper, and then, in spite of himself, he returned to find that the sounds had grown louder, and as if involuntarily agitated and troubled more than he would have cared to own, he rang again and then entered the hall. He hesitated for a few moments, and then certain from the voices that there was something strange, and divining wrongly or rightly from the tones of one of the voices--a voice which thrilled him as he stood there trembling with excitement--that the woman he loved needed help, he threw aside all hesitation, and turned the handle of the door. The words which fell upon his ear, the scene he saw of Louise kneeling at some strange, rough-looking man's feet, sent the blood surging up to his brain, rendering him incapable of calm thought, and turned the ordinarily patient, deliberative man into a being wrought almost to a pitch of madness. It did not occur to him that he was an intruder, and that he had no right to make such a demand, but taking a stride forward, he exclaimed-- "Louise! who is this man?" as the lamp was swept from the table, and they were in darkness. For a few moments no one spoke, and Louise stood clinging to her brother, trembling violently, and at her wits' end to know what to do. The simple way out of the difficulty would have been to take Duncan Leslie into their confidence at once; but in her agitation, Louise shrank from that. She knew his stern integrity; she had often heard of his firmness with his mine people; and she feared that in his surprise and disgust at what seemed to her now little better than a trick played by her brother to deceive them, Leslie would turn against him and refuse to keep the secret. On the other hand, Harry, suffering from a fresh access of dread, but now strung up and excited, placed his lips to her ear and bade her be silent on her life. The silence was for a few moments terrible, and then Harry's breath could be heard coming and going as if he had been hunted, while Louise, in her agony of excitement, sought vainly for words that should put an end to the painful encounter. No one moved; and in the midst of the nervous strain a sharp puff of wind came sweeping up from the sea, like the _avant garde_ of a storm, and the casement window was blown to with a loud clang. Harry started as if he had felt that his retreat was cut off, but he kept his face averted, and dragged his rough hat down over his eyes, though the action was unnecessary, for the darkness was too great for him to be recognised. As he started Louise clung to him, and for the moment he struggled to escape from her, but he clung to her the next instant, and quivered with fear as the silence was broken by Leslie's voice, so cold, deep, and harsh that it seemed as if a stranger was speaking.