"I killed Tardif. He is there in the hut in the garden--dead! I was
seen, and they are coming to take me."

With a cry she ran to the door that led into the hall, and locked it.
She listened, then turned her face to Louis.

"You killed him!" she gasped. "Louis! Louis!" Her face was like
ashes.

"I stabbed him to death. It was all I could do, and I did it. He
slandered you. I went mad, and did it. Now--"

There was a knocking at the door, and a voice calling--a peremptory
voice.

"There is only one way," he said. "They shall not take me. I will not
be dragged to gaol for crowds to jeer at. I will not be sent to the
scaffold, to your shame."

He ran to the door of the bath-room and flung it open. "If my life is to
pay the price, then--!"

She came blindly towards him, stretching out her hands.

"Louis! Louis!" was all that she could say.

He caught her hands and kissed them, then stepped swiftly back into the
little bath-room, and locked the door, as the door of the room she was in
was burst open, and two constables and a half-dozen men crowded into the
room.