time, for each minute Cuthbert and the police are drawing nearer,
and to move about only invites a bullet. And, what is of more
importance," he went on quickly, as though to turn her mind from
the mysterious pistol-shots, "should we get out of this alive, I
shall already have said what under ordinary conditions I might not
have found the courage to tell you in many months." He waited as
though hopeful of a reply, but Miss Dale remained silent. "They
say," continued Ford, "when a man is drowning his whole life passes
in review. We are drowning, and yet I find I can see into the past
no further than the last half-hour. I find life began only then,
when I looked through the bars of that window and found YOU!"

With the palm of her hand the girl struck the floor sharply. "This
is neither the time," she exclaimed, "nor the place to----"

"I did not choose the place," Ford pointed out. "It was forced upon
me with a gun. But the TIME is excellent. At such a time one speaks
only what is true."

"You certainly have a strange sense of humor," she said, "but when
you are risking your life to help me, how can I be angry?"

"Of course you can't," Ford agreed heartily; "you could not be so
conventional."

"But I AM conventional!" protested Miss Dale. "And I am not USED to
having young men tell me they have 'come into my life to
stay'--certainly not young men who come into my life by way of a
trap-door, and without an introduction, without a name, without
even a hat! It's absurd! It's not real! It's a nightmare!"