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unreality. It seemed to Nessie that she herself was somehow becoming unreal; her body, her legs running and stumbling through the dark, unkept street would presently slip away, out of the village, out of reach of the mob, out of any coming life of shame; it was all ending; she was ending; a leap, a crashing in the darkness— She heard the express shriek for the station, a tremendous cacophony, stunning the night with its power.

Nessie darted past a shop that stood on the business street at the head of the cross alley she sought. She was running now in frantic haste lest the train roar past the other end of the alley before she reached it. She was hardly twenty feet down this thoroughfare before she heard a sharp running behind her. A new terror of capture by the mob filled the girl. She flew down the littered alley panic struck, but the footsteps of a man closed behind her and a moment later an urgent guarded voice called her name, "Nessie! Nessie! Is that you, Nessie?"

She tried to run faster with the terror of a woman before a man's superior speed. The voice cried out, "For God's sake, wait, Nessie! Where are you going?"

The lowered tones, the desperate urgency somewhat assured the panic-stricken girl. She checked her flight and stood gasping, her heart drumming, unable to speak. A smallish figure not much taller than herself appeared in the darkness. A moment later she recognized Mr. Belshue. She was neither surprised, relieved, nor did he move her tortured emotions in any degree whatever save to fill her with a violent impatience.

"What in the world do you want?" she demanded, with her heart shaking her husky voice.

"Thank God, I've found you!" panted the jeweller, coming up beside her. "I've hunted everywhere, at your hotel, the Grand, on the streets. . . ."

"What do you want? What do you want?" cried the girl tensely.

"I want to get you out of this town to-night, this minute,