"THE FOLLY OF GRANDEUR" There flashed through Frances Durkin's mind, in the momentary silence that fell over that strange company, the consciousness that the triangle was completed; that there, in one room, through a fortuitousness that seemed to her more factitious than actual, stood the three contending and opposing forces.

The thought came and went like a flash, for it was not a time for meditation, but for hurried and desperate action.

The sense of something vast and ominous seemed to hang over the darkness, where, for a second or two, the silence of absolute surprise reigned.
The last-comer, too, seemed to feel this sense of something impending, for a moment later his voice rang out, clear and unhesitating, with a touch of challenge in it.
"Miss Allen, are you here?
And is anything wrong ?" "Stand where you are!" the voice of the woman answered, through the darkness, firm and clear.

"Yes.

I am here.