"You will--apologize," Burke said again very insistently, with pitiless distinctness. There was a dreadful pause. Kieff's breathing was less laboured, but it was painfully uneven and broken. His lips twitched convulsively. They seemed to be trying to form words, but no words came. Burke waited, and several seconds dragged away. Then suddenly from the door of the office the girl who had received Sylvia the previous evening emerged. She carried a glass. "Here you are!" she said curtly. "Give him this!" There was neither pity nor horror in her look. Her eyes dwelt upon Burke with undisguised admiration. "You've given him a good dose this time," she remarked. "Serve him right--the dirty hound! Hope it'll be a lesson to the rest of 'em," and she shot a glance at Piet Vreiboom which was more eloquent than words. She held the glass to Kieff's lips with a contemptuous air, and when he had drunk she emptied the dregs upon the floor and marched back into the office. "Now," Burke said again, "you will apologize." And so at last in a voice so low as to be barely audible, Saul Kieff, from whose sneer all women shrank as from the sting of a scorpion, made unreserved apology to the girl he had plotted to ruin. At Burke's behest he withdrew the vile calumny he had launched against her, and he expressed his formal regret for the malice that had prompted it. When Burke let him go, no one attempted to offer him help. There was probably not a man present from whom he would have accepted it. He slunk away like a wounded beast, staggering, but obviously intent upon escape, and the gathering shadows of the coming night received him. A murmur as of relief ran round the circle of spectators he left behind, and in a moment, as it were automatically, the general attention was turned upon Sylvia. She was still leaning against Kelly, her death-white face fixed and rigid. Her eyes were closed. Burke went to her. "Come!" he said. "We will go up." Her eyes opened. She looked straight at him, seeing none beside. "Was that how you treated Guy?" she said. He laid an imperative hand upon her. "Come!" he said again. She made a movement as though to evade him, and then suddenly she faltered. Her eyes grew wide and dark. She threw out her hands with a groping gesture as if stricken blind, and fell straight forward. Burke caught her, held her for a moment; then as she sank in his arms he lifted her, and bore her away. CHAPTER IV THE EVIL THING When Sylvia opened her eyes again she was lying in the chair by the open window where she had waited so long the previous evening. Her first impression was that she was alone, and then with a sudden stabbing sense of fear she realized Burke's presence. He was standing slightly behind her, so that the air might reach her, but leaning forward, watching her intently. With a gasp she looked up into his eyes. He put his hand instantly upon her, reassuring her. "All right. It's all right," he said.