They take turns coming in." "Did you send for me ?" "Yes, several times." "But I had no word--no messages ever got to me." "I sent the boys, and they left word with your women that I was ill and would you please come." A sudden deadly sickness seized Jane.

She fought the weakness, as she fought to be above suspicious thoughts, and it passed, leaving her conscious of her utter impotence.

That, too, passed as her spirit rebounded.

But she had again caught a glimpse of dark underhand domination, running its secret lines this time into her own household.
Like a spider in the blackness of night an unseen hand had begun to run these dark lines, to turn and twist them about her life, to plait and weave a web.

Jane Withersteen knew it now, and in the realization further coolness and sureness came to her, and the fighting courage of her ancestors.
"Mrs.Larkin, you're better, and I'm so glad," said Jane.