"Miska!" cried Stuart, and sprang towards her, sweeping her hungrily into his arms--forgetful of, indifferent to, the presence of Max and Dunbar. "Ah!" sighed the Frenchman--"yes, she is beautiful!" Trembling wildly, Miska clung to Stuart and began to speak, her English more broken than ever, because of her emotion. "Listen--quick!" she panted. "Oh! do not hold me so tight. I have the house-keys--look!"--she held up a bunch of keys--"but not the keys of the gates. Two men have gone to the end of the tunnel where the boat is hid beside the river. Someone--he better climb this gate and by the ivy he can reach the room in which Fo-Hi is! I come down so. You do not see me because the moon goes out and I run to the side-door. It is open. _You_ come with me!" She clung to Stuart, looking up into his eyes. "Yes, yes, Miska!" "Oh! Chunda Lal"--she choked down a sob. "Be quick! be quick! _He_ will kill him! he will kill him!" "Off you go, doctor!" cried Max. "Come along, Dunbar!" He began to climb the ironwork of the gate. "This way!" said Miska, dragging Stuart by the arm. "Oh! I am wild with fear and sorrow and joy!" "With joy, dear little Miska!" whispered Stuart, as he followed her. They passed around the bend into the narrower lane which led toward the river and upon which the garden-door opened. Stuart detained her. If the fate of the whole world had hung in the balance--as indeed, perhaps it did--he could not have acted otherwise. He raised her bewitching face and kissed her ardently. She trembled and clung to him rapturously. "I _live_!" she whispered. "Oh! I am mad with happiness! It is Chunda Lal that gives me life--for he tells me the truth. It is not with the living-death that _he_ touches me; it is a trick, it is all a trick to bind me to him! Oh, Chunda Lal! Hurry! he is going to kill him!" But supreme above all the other truths in the world, the joyous truth that Miska was to live set Stuart's heart on fire. "Thank God!" he said fervently--"oh, thank God! Miska!" At the garden-door a group of men awaited them. Sergeant Sowerby and two assistants remaining to watch the entrance and the lane, Miska led Stuart and the burly Inspector Kelly along that path beside the wall which Stuart so well remembered. "Hurry!" she whispered urgently. "We must try to reach him before ..." "You fear for Chunda Lal?" said Stuart. "Oh, yes! He has a terrible power--Fo-Hi--which he never employs with me, until to-night. Ah! it is only Chunda Lal, who saved me! But Chunda Lal he can command with his _Will._ From it, once he has made anyone a slave to it, there is no escape. I have seen one in the city of Quebec, in Canada, forget all else and begin to act in obedience to the will of Fo-Hi who is thousands of miles away!" "My God!" murmured Stuart, "what a horrible monster!" They had reached the open door beyond which showed the dimly lighted passage. Miska hesitated. "Oh! I am afraid!" she whispered.