Page:The traitor; a story of the fall of the invisible empire (IA traitorstoryoffa00dixo).pdf/248

 way in which he can be made to pay the penalty of his crime, I'll deliver him to his men."

"They'll be ready to receive him."

"I shall know in twenty-four hours."

"I'll await your word," he answered eagerly, his eyes devouring her beauty.

Steve hurriedly left and Stella seated herself at her desk to write her answer to John Graham. Two attempts she tore up. The third suited her. In the centre of a sheet of paper she wrote two words:

When John Graham received this note at eleven o'clock from the hands of her messenger, he felt before he broke the seal that it bore glad tidings.

He tore it open and with a cry of joy, tried to read, and the tears blinded him. He crushed the note in his hand and bowed his head on his desk, his whole being convulsed with emotion which he could not control. He rose at length, walked to his window, opened the note again and gazed at it until he broke into a joyous laugh, repeating the words:

"The most wonderful letter I ever received," he exclaimed. "The longest, the richest, the deepest—the answering call of my mate! In all nature