“Wait! He shall explain,” cried Nathan, catching the battered and bleeding Teasdale, or Russell, by the collar and jerking him forward. “Here, you knave, explain to these ladies that those letters you wrote and sent were but forgeries, fabricated and secreted by you or your emissaries, to work ruin and unhappiness.” Russell gulped and gasped in an effort to speak. “Speak! Out with it! Tell the truth!” Mark commanded savagely. “I admit it,” he groaned at last. “I wrote the letters and bribed a servant to hide them in a desk at the Major’s house when his wife was away from home, in the hope that he might find them and believe that she was false to him. She knew nothing of them, nor did she ever receive a letter from me.” “Oh, wretched man! How could you conceive of such infamy!” murmured Agnes, turning away her pallid face. “It is to be hoped you will receive a just reward for your wickedness,” said Mrs. Wylie, who in the light of this scene could unravel all the mysteries that had so long puzzled her with regard to Mrs. Lucien’s past history. “He shall receive it if there is any justice in this land of ours,” said Mark. “This is not the only crime he has to answer for. What could have been your object in this case, you dog?” “Revenge!” Russell uttered the word with an evil sneer. “Can you ever forgive me, Agnes?” Major Walden had turned from Russell and was looking at Agnes beseechingly. “As I hope to be forgiven, Markham,” she replied solemnly. “Thank you. It is more than I have a right to expect. I—” His voice broke in its utterance, and he turned away to recover his self-control. “And now what shall we do with this fellow?” asked Nathan. “Turn him over to the police?” “He certainly should not be allowed to go about leaving in his wake the slimy trail of the serpent,” responded Mark. “I’ll swear out a warrant charging him with abducting Esther McCleary.” “There are reasons,” said Major Walden, “why it might be unpleasant to bring my affair into court. However, I am ready to testify against him if needed.” Mark turned again toward Russell, but to his consternation and astonishment the man had vanished. Before the eyes of six persons he had managed to glide away unobserved. They looked up and down the streets, peered into stairways, and searched alleys, but he was not to be found. He had disappeared as suddenly and entirely as though the ground had opened and swallowed him. “A guard of his imps must have snatched him away,” said Nathan as the men came back from their search to the place they had left the women. “Perhaps he assumed his natural form and slithered away on the ground to his den,” said Walden. “I imagine the fellow must have hypnotized us,” Mark replied. “I can’t account for his getting away without being seen by some of us by any other hypothesis. But let us believe it is good riddance. He’ll not be apt to trouble any of us again. I should like to have had him reveal Esther’s whereabouts, however.”