here, for Gilbert Warrington will find me, and he will claim me. And, oh, God, I would far rather be dead than his wife! Yorke Towers is my safe refuge. Surely, Helen Yorke will help me to hide from Gilbert Warrington,[Pg 63] and to find the lost papers which will give me back my own again. There is a room at Yorke Towers called the haunted room. If only she will let me stay there and hide, I shall be safe—safe—safe! But here I would be persecuted until I would have to take my own life to escape from him. I must reach Yorke Towers to-night. I must—I must!” [Pg 63] She had unfastened the little gate at last, and flitted through like a bird. Her pursuer darts after her, and closing the gate, locks it, and flings the key far out into the little strip of woodland which belts the road. It was still as death out here, only the occasional cry of a belated night-bird and the monotonous cheep, cheep, cheep of a cricket hidden in the tall grass near by to break the silence. On, like a wild creature—for she is afraid of the night and the lonely darkness—Rosamond Arleigh flies; the man who is in pursuit of her keeps close in her wake—on, on! Half hidden by a clump of great live-oaks, Doctor Danton’s carriage stands patiently waiting, its driver, Tom, a faithful negro, nodding upon the box. All at once Tom became conscious of a slight, dark-robed figure, and a woman’s voice broke the silence, calling swiftly, softly: “Drive me to Yorke Towers at once. Quick, quick! Lose no time!” Then the dark-robed figure stepped swiftly, noiselessly—“jes’[Pg 64] like a ghos’!” so poor Tom was wont to declare—into the carriage, and the door was shut. [Pg 64] Tom gathered up his reins obediently, and turned his horses’ heads about. But at that moment a stinging blow descended upon his head; heaven and earth seemed to come together with a shock. Some one, or something—for Tom afterward described the apparition as a tall black man, with fiery eyes and a tail; in fact, a veritable Satan—seized him in an iron grip, and he felt himself descending rapidly earthward. Another concussion, as something struck him upon the head and chest, then darkness—the very blackness of darkness—gathered over him, and Tom knew no more. Prone upon the ground, under the clump of oaks, he lay until he was rescued later on by
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