listen?" she said again, fighting to steady her voice. "It was an
accident."

"I saw the machine when you drove up--it was a wreck!" snapped Madison
sarcastically.

"We ran out of gasoline," she said quietly.

And then Madison laughed--fiercely--in his derision.

"Oh, keep on!" he rasped. "I told you I was only a blind fool that you
could put anything over on! That accounts for it, of course--a breakdown
isn't so easy to get away with. Gasoline!"

"We were miles from anywhere," she went on. "We had taken what we
thought was a short cut. Mr. Thornton built a shelter for me in the
woods, and went to--to--"

He caught up her hesitation like a flash.

"Fake the lines, Helena, if you haven't had enough rehearsals," he
suggested ironically. "Anything goes--with me."

And now a tinge of color came to Helena's cheeks, and the brown eyes
raised, and flashed, and dropped.

"He went to try and find help," she said. "He was out all night in the
storm. I do not know how far he must have walked. I know the nearest
house was five or six miles away--and there was no horse there--the man
had driven to some town that morning. It was almost daylight before Mr.