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Rh natural mingles with the natural at will. His hand touched Lorine's; and, as though she were unconscious of it, she permitted his touch. He started when Max's slow voice broke the silence.

"The sound of knocking now will be me against this wall," Max announced. "Remember, all are pledged only to observe—to interfere in no way with what will follow." And, waiting for his own voice to become silent, he knocked four times with a peculiar interval between, and then repeated the raps.

In the silence which followed—enduring a full half-minute—Hereford was conscious that the girl beside him seemed to be holding her breath. Then, at the end of a suspense during which he heard her draw her breath only as she panted for it, there came