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“Make no sound, as you value our lives.”

As she whispered this, Van Dam swore mildly at the luck that prevented him from appraising his companion’s good looks, now that her mask was off. From the courtyard below sounded voices. The girl clutched him nervously; her hand was shaking. He could feel her shiver, so he slipped an arm about her waist. He did this merely to steady her, he told himself. He reasoned further that such a familiarity could scarcely be offensive in the dark. As she yielded gratefully to his embrace, her soft body palpitating against his own, he ceased reasoning and drew her closer. It was very agreeable to discover that she made no resistance; he could not recollect any sensation quite like this! As yet he had done nothing improper, in view of the fact that it was every gentleman’s bounden duty to succor beauty in distress. He wondered if his friends at the Grunewald had missed him, then realized with relief that Miss Banniman never allowed his presence or his absence to interfere in the slightest with her arrangements. They were probably finishing their drinks by now. This would make an entertaining story, later in the evening; they would never guess what he was doing.

“Who is that speaking?” he inquired.

“Francois, the Spider,” whispered the girl. “Eh, God! How they all have come to hate you!”

Roly reasoned from these words that his enemies numbered more than one or two, and involuntarily he asked: “Hate me? What for?”

The girl trembled. “As if you did not know.”

“And what would happen if they found me–us?” he persisted, feeling vaguely for some hint.

“Ah!” Her breath caught. “Hush!” She laid her fingers over the lips of his mask.

Van Dam yielded to an ungovernable impulse and kissed them through the stiff, harsh cloth, whereat she said in wonderment:

“Heaven guard us! You are actually laughing. That you are wild, I knew; but–you are–you act very strangely, m’sieu.”

“Perhaps I’m intoxicated,” he murmured, and pressed her slender waist meaningly; whereupon she seemed to feel his arm for the first time. She drew away, but as she disengaged his embrace her hand encountered his.

“It is wet–bloody–where you struck the Black Wolf.”

“That was a good wallop, wasn’t it?” Van Dam chuckled, with satisfaction, while she felt for her handkerchief and dabbled at his bruised knuckles. “I wondered if I could put him out.”

Then they ceased whispering, for some one was entering the stable beneath them. After a time the stairs creaked to a heavy tread, a hand tried the door, and they could feel a presence within arm’s-length. They stood motionless, not daring even to shift their weight upon the crazy floor, until the fellow began to explore the other portion of the loft.

“That is the Spider himself,” breathed the girl, close to Van Dam’s ear. “He thinks he has me in his web; but–“

“Yes?”

“I would die before I married him.”

A sudden dislike for spiders in general awoke in Roly’s breast.

“I hate him. I would kill him if I dared, but he frightens me–” She broke off and caught at her companion, gasping: “God! What are you doing?”

He had turned the key softly and was opening the door. To be quite truthful, Roly Van Dam did not know exactly what he intended doing, but some reckless impulse moved him to action. He was invaded by a sudden desire to lay hands upon this Spider person who went about terrorizing pretty girls. Having been reared to a habit of doing exactly as impulse dictated, he felt no hesitation now. Away back in his mind, however, something told him calmly that he had gone quite mad, that the magic of adventure had sent his wits a-flying and had played havoc with his common sense. And a change really had come over him with the very beginning of this enterprise, although he had not stopped to notice it. The flaring rage that had answered to the Wolf’s assault upon the girl, the joyful sensation of setting his fist into the fellow’s face, the excitement of the flight and the pursuit, had all combined to upset his equilibrium. Then, too, the presence of this bewitching creature close beside him in the darkness, the pressure of her body in his arms, the scent of her warm breath–all this helped to completely electrify him. He felt the dawning of new and utterly absurd desires. Away with discretion! To the winds with prudence! This maiden’s cause was his. Here was the one glad moment of his life.