He opened the heavy door, and in the dim light of the hall lamp again saw Mr. Rodney’s face. It was pale with deadly wrath, the blue eyes were lurid with rage. “You have deceived me, Oran Delaney,” he blazed forth, in accents of concentrated rage and hate. “Aline has never returned to her home. She is still here!” “Here!” echoed the astonished master of Delaney House. “Yes, here!” Mr. Rodney answered, stormily. “You need not deny it! Oran Delaney, if you do not give me back my child, I will kill you where you stand!” The other reached out and drew the half-frantic man into the hall, closing the heavy door. “My God, what do you mean?” he cried. “Aline not returned to her home?” Astonishment and dismay were depicted on his countenance, but the infuriated man would not believe the signs of alarm and dread written on the face of the man whom he believed to be the destroyer of his fair young daughter’s happiness. “Do not act a part with me,” he cried. “I warn you I will not bear it. Aline has left her home and fled to your protection. If you do not immediately restore her to me, I will not answer for the consequences!” “She is not here, Mr. Rodney. I swear to you that she left this house five minutes before you entered it, this evening.” “I will not listen to your prevarications. I _know_ that Aline is here. I will not leave Delaney House to-night without her!” cried Mr. Rodney, in a low tone of deadly menace, as he fixed his lurid, blazing eyes on the face of the man whom he hated with a terrible hate. He was cruelly tortured. The thought of Aline’s dishonor was like a thorn in his heart. He was filled with a deadly rage against her. She was so young and beautiful to be so wicked. He felt as if he could easily kill her--her and the man who had so cruelly wrecked her young life. The grim, hard smile that played around his writhing lips in the dim light of the stately old hall was terrible to see. “I am a desperate man,” Mr. Rodney continued, hoarsely. “You have taken from me my ewe-lamb. You must look to yourself. I shall not leave this house to-night until I find her. If you do not give her up, I shall search the house for her--ay, even if I have to pass over your dead body to do so!” They stood looking at each other steadily. Oran Delaney had whitened to a deadly pallor. “Mr. Rodney, you know not what you ask,” he said. “Can you not take my word of honor that your daughter is not here? If you searched my house thrice over you would find nothing but dust and gloom and ghosts of the dead past.” “What about the hidden blue room?” sneered Mr. Rodney. Mr. Delaney changed color at those words. “The blue room?” he stammered. “Yes, the blue room where you kept my child hidden so long. Let me look there,” said Mr. Rodney. “It is empty. There is no one there,” said Mr. Delaney.