Page:Chipperfield--Unseen Hands.djvu/250

238 one is, after what has been going on, and you know it. If the others want to stick along and risk being killed, that is their own affair; but I'm not going to have Nan—Miss Chalmers—subjected to such danger."

"Indeed, Mr. Traymore. Have you any legal right to remove her? I understand that Miss Chalmers is not yet of age; does her guardian consent to her taking up her residence elsewhere?"

"I haven't asked him." Tad appeared slightly taken aback. "No one has a right to keep her where her life is in danger. She insists on staying to look after her stepfather, when any ordinary nurse could do that."

"I won't leave him, and that is all there is about it!" declared Nan with sudden spirit, her dark, gipsy-like face aglow. "I love Dad almost better than anybody in the world, and I won't run away while he is ill and needs me. Don't mind him, Sergeant Odell; we're always quarreling. Did you wish to talk to me?"

"Yes, for just a moment; but first I want to assure your friend that you are as safe here as constant care and watchfulness can make you. I do not think it would be wise for you to take up even a temporary residence elsewhere unless actual danger threatens you from a source which we cannot control; for others of the household might wish to avail themselves of the same privilege."

"In that case," said Tad, rising, "I suppose I had better take myself off. I hope, Sergeant, that you will be able to take care of her; but it is a horrible thing to think of her being here! Good-by, Nan."

Woman-like, she permitted him to get as far as the entrance door before she ran after him, and the detective