"Is there any one there?" it said. "Oh, please, is any one there?"

"Is that you, Ella?" Deede Dawson called back. "Come down here."

"I can't," she answered. "I'm fastened to a chair."

"I didn't hurt the young lady," Dunn interposed quickly. "I only
tied her up as gentle as I could to a chair so as to stop her from
interfering."

"Oh, that's it, is it?" said Deede Dawson, and seemed a little
amused, as though the thought of his stepdaughter's plight pleased
him rather than not. "Well, if she can't come down here, we'll go
up there. Turn round, my man, and go up the stairs and keep your
hands over your head all the time. I shan't hesitate to shoot if
you don't, and I never miss."

Dunn was not inclined to value his life at a very high price as he
turned and went awkwardly up the stairs, still holding his hands
above his head.

But he meant to save it if he could, for many things depended on
it, among them due punishment to be exacted for the crime he had
discovered this night; and also, perhaps, for the humiliation he
was now enduring.



CHAPTER VIII