Ida shrank back into the Colonel's arms, and he addressed Miss Hest in a voice rendered hoarse with indignation. "You are a thoroughly bad woman. I never did approve of you, and now that I see you, as Ida does, in your true colours, I tell you----" "My true colours," scoffed the other contemptuously. "No one knows what they are. You least of all, you narrow-minded idiot." "What do you mean?" demanded Towton, taken aback by the malignant look on her hard white face. "Don't ask her," implored Ida, striving to pull her lover to the door, "she will only lie. Let us leave this wicked house, as I am certain that there is something terrible concealed here." "Something terrible," echoed Towton looking startled. "Don't talk rubbish," muttered Frances, with a dangerous expression in her eyes. "Colonel, you had better take away that fool, or it will be the worse for her. I warn you." "I have heard strange noises," went on Ida feverishly. "People have been coming and going in the dead of night. Then that Hindoo----" "Hokar!" cried the Colonel. "Miss Hest, how do you explain Hokar?" "I explain nothing," snapped Frances, marching to the door in an imperious way and throwing it open. "Out you go, both of you," She recoiled. "Ah! you dare to!"--with a gasp she tried to close the door again, but Towton dashed forward and caught her arm. "I have seen; it is too late," he almost shouted. "Maunders. Come in!" It was indeed Maunders who stood on the threshold. He looked the ghost of his former handsome, insolent, prosperous self. Thin and haggard and worn, with his clothes hanging loosely on his figure, he presented a woeful spectacle. "What have you been doing to yourself? How did you come here?" asked Towton, stepping back much startled, with Ida on his arm. "Ask that woman how I came here; ask her how she has treated me. But I escaped from the room she locked me in by climbing out of the window. Now I shall show her the mercy she has shown me. She is----" Frances darted forward and clapped her hand on his mouth. "I'll kill you if you say the word. You cursed fool. Be silent or I give you up." Maunders, with a strength which his frail looks scarcely suggested, threw her off and staggered against the door. "I give _you_ up," he shrieked, wild with anger, "you thief, you blackmailer, you murderess!" "What?" cried Towton eagerly, and grasping vaguely at the terrible truth. "Yes." Maunders pointed an accusing finger at Frances Hest. "There is The Spider. A woman; a devil! Arrest her; imprison her; hang her on the gallows," and he sank down on the floor, his back to the door, with hatred written on his white and ghastly face. CHAPTER XXI. JUSTICE.