A sort of ecstasy, half anguish and half delight, thrilled through Wilmot. The writing was unmistakably Barbara's--and she was ready to make that sacrifice for him! "She sha'n't do that," he said, "so help me God. What must I do--to save her?" "Young man," said the legless man, "you must give me your legs." Wilmot was at first bewildered. "My legs?" "They are to be grafted on my poor old stumps," said Blizzard. "You won't die. You'll just be as I am now. And I--I," his eyes shone with an unholy light, "shall be as you are now--a biped--a real man--a giant of a man. You are going to consent?" "How do I know that you will let Miss Ferris go?" "You shall have news of her freedom and safety in her own writing." "When I have that assurance," said Wilmot, "I will consent to anything. Any decent man would give his life for a woman--why not his legs? Is Dr. Ferris to operate?" "He will be the chief of three surgeons." "But he won't cut off my legs. We're old friends. He--" "Won't know you in that beard. I have told him that you are a murderer whom I have saved from the chair. That in gratitude for this and for the further services of smuggling you out of the country and giving you a large sum of money--not forgetting the crying interests of science--you have consented to give me your legs. He will ask you if you consent to have your legs cut off, and you will nod your head without speaking--then when my old stumps have been prepared--you will be put under an anaesthetic--" "First I must know that Miss Ferris is safe." "Give me your word of honor that when you _know_ that she is--you will consent." "I don't know what you have to do with honor," said Wilmot, "but I give my word." "Then," said Blizzard, sliding to the floor, "I go to set Miss Ferris free." XLIV At first Barbara could not bear to tell her father, but at last her excitement and distress became so great that she had to tell him. In a few hours she had changed from a radiant person to one white, sick, and shadowed. "I've seen that man," she said. "I was writing notes in the summer-house. He--" "What man--Blizzard? Well?" "I've promised to marry him. He has Wilmot Allen in his house--in his power. He told me that if I would marry him, he would let Wilmot go. If I wouldn't, he would kill him with indescribable tortures. I told him that I would marry him when I learned that Wilmot was safe. And so I will, and then I will kill myself. You've got to do something. I never knew till he was in this awful danger that in all the world there was never anybody for me but Wilmot--fool not to know it in time." Dr. Ferris made her drink something that he mixed in a glass. In a few minutes her jumping nerves began to come into control. [Illustration: "I've seen that man. I was writing notes in the summer house when he came".]