“You’re a panther,” she said, loathingly.

“Graceful and elegant brute, that,” he laughed.  “Affectionate and full of play, but with sharp teeth and sharper claws.  To follow out the idea, which pleases me, I believe the creature owes no loyalty to its fellows and hunts alone.  Now, when you’ve followed this conspiracy out and placed the blame where it belongs, won’t you come and tell me about it?  That door leads into an outer hall which opens into the street.  No one will see you come or go.”

As she hurried away she wondered dazedly why she had stayed to listen so long.  What a monster he was!  His meaning was plain, had always been so from the first day he laid eyes upon her, and he was utterly conscienceless.  She had known all this; and yet, in her proud, youthful confidence, and in her need, every hour more desperate and urgent, to know the truth, she had dared risk herself with him.  Withal, the man was shrewd and observant and had divined her mental condition with remarkable sagacity.  She had failed with him; but the girl now knew that she could never rest till she found an answer to her questions.  She must kill this suspicion that ate into her so.  She thought tenderly of her uncle’s goodness to her, clung with despairing faith to the last of her kin.  The blood ties of the Chesters were close and she felt in dire need of that lost brother who was somewhere in this mysterious land—­need of some one in whom ran the strain that bound her to the weak old man up yonder.  There was McNamara; but how could he help her, how much did she know of him, this man who was now within the darkest shadow of her new suspicions?

Feeling almost intolerably friendless and alone, weakened both by her recent fright and by her encounter with Struve, Helen considered as calmly as her emotions would allow and decided that this was no day in which pride should figure.  There were facts which it was imperative she should know, and immediately; therefore, a few minutes later, she knocked at the door of Cherry Malotte.  When the girl appeared, Helen was astonished to see that she had been crying.  Tears burn hottest and leave plainest trace in eyes where they come most seldom.  The younger girl could not guess the tumult of emotion the other had undergone during her absence, the utter depths of self-abasement she had fathomed, for the sight of Helen and her fresh young beauty had roused in the adventuress a very tempest of bitterness and jealousy.  Whether Helen Chester were guilty or innocent, how could Glenister hesitate between them?  Cherry had asked herself.  Now she stared at her visitor inhospitably and without sign.

“Will you let me come in?” Helen asked her.  “I have something to say to you.”

When they were inside, Cherry Malotte stood and gazed at her visitor with inscrutable eyes and stony face.