"No, no! you must not risk your life for a dog, even a faithful one," cried Earle, trying to hold his friend back, for the situation was very perilous. "No, no! I must save that poor dog!" Lord Chester cried, breaking loose and ascending the ladder, while the shouts of the tumultuous crowd rang to heaven. Slowly, carefully, through the blinding smoke and heat and threatening flame he went, and presently his head rose above the sill of the open window and he peered into the room, which seemed full of black smoke and leaping flames. He put out his hand and it touched a big tawny head. "Come, good fellow, come," he cried, and tried to drag him out. Then he made a startling discovery. The faithful mastiff had dragged an unconscious human being to the window with his teeth, and was holding her up by a mass of golden hair in a vain effort to get her up to the sill, where she might be seen and rescued by the crowd. CHAPTER X. "HIS HEART WILL TURN BACK TO ME." "Eyes that loved me once, I pray Be not crueler than death; Hide each sharp-edged glance away Underneath its cruel sheath! Make me not, sweet eyes, with scorn, Mourn that I was ever born!"--ALICE CARY. Through the falling twilight of the bleak March day Ethel Winans sped away like a guilty creature, nor paused until she reached her home. Entering by a private door she gained her own room unobserved and hastened to bathe her face and hands and rearrange her disordered tresses. Then she summoned Hetty, and the maid stared in surprise at her corpse-like pallor and heavy eyes. "Oh, Miss Ethel, you look awful! Are you sick?" "I am tired to death," sighed Ethel. "I have had such a long, weary chase after Kay! Oh, Hetty, I have lost him, but you must never, never tell, for papa would never forgive me if he knew. He ran off with some other dogs in a park, and though I ran and ran I could not get him back." "You ought not to worry so about the dog, Miss Ethel. Lordy, he'll be sure to find his way back home," declared the maid cheerfully. Ethel looked on the verge of tears. She half sobbed: "Do you think so? I hope he will, for Precious loved him so dearly, and papa will be so sorry to find him gone, and he will be so angry with me for taking him out. Please don't say anything about it to any one, Hetty, and you may have that coral bracelet of mine." "Thank you kindly, Miss Ethel, and of course it's not my business to find out that Kay is missing. So now it's time to dress for dinner, if you please. What dress will you wear, Miss Ethel? That new gold-colored silk with the black lace draperies, or something plainer? There's no one to dinner but the two gentlemen of the family. Your mamma is not well enough to dine." "Poor mamma! But, Hetty, I am too tired to dress and dine to-night. I think I will send down excuses and retire. My head is throbbing with pain. I believe I should like a sedative."