It would be hard to say who was the palest and most terror-stricken of the trio who stood on the terrace. Mrs. Crosbie clung to her stern mother with eyes, shaking like a reed: but Mrs. Berch, although stern and unmoved--outwardly at least--was also . As for Rebb, he leaned against the balustrade of the terrace scarcely able to speak. Before him stood Tod and Arnold, Gerald Haskins and the girl whom he had treated so cruelly--the girl whom he had believed until now was at the bottom of some rural stream. The hour of retribution had come, and in a flash the guilty man saw everything he reft from him--saw also the structure of crime and falsehood he had reared into dust. His worst enemy would have pitied the Major in that hour of agony.  
"You!" he , staring at Mavis, as though she were indeed the ghost he almost believed her to be. "You!"
 
"Ah!" murmured Macandrew , "so Geary did not deliver my message to you after all."
 
"Geary!" The Major stood , for the coming struggle, and his face hardened. "Did Geary know this----" And he to Mavis.
 
"I told him the truth last night."
 
"And he never told me; he never warned me." Rebb his fists. "Oh the scoundrel! I might have---- But there, it is too late--too late."
 
"What do you mean by too late?" said Mrs. Berch imperiously, and throwing a protecting arm round her daughter, "fight for Madge if you will not for yourself."
 
But Rebb paid no attention to her. "Geary! Geary!" he muttered, looking round with bloodshot eyes, "he was in the courtyard an hour ago, and he did not tell me, curse him! He may be---- Geary! Geary!" he raised his voice to an angry cry and ran swiftly along the terrace through the arch and into the quadrangle.
 
Gerald took the hand of his wife and followed quickly, with Tod and the ex-tutor behind. They did not wish to lose sight of Rebb. For one moment Mrs. Berch and her daughter looked at one another, and Madge hung back, trembling. But the mother suddenly seized the widow's wrist and dragged her, a figure, pale-faced, and shaking in her gay , into the quadrangle. "We must see what Michael will do," whispered Mrs. Berch, passing her tongue over her dry lips. "He may win the day yet."
 
"No, no," moaned Mrs. Crosbie; "he is lost."
 
At the far end of the quadrangle Gerald and Mavis saw the token of Geary's drunken handiwork. A considerable portion of the ivy-clothed wall had fallen outward, and lay in ruins on the lip of the cliff. Three or four trees had been dashed into the pool below, and there was a clear view across the Ruddle to the green forest beyond. The mystery of the Castle was at an end, and, no longer a palace of the Sleeping Beauty, it lay open to the world, as Morgan had said. And now in its romantic quadrangle there were sterner doings than the moonlight wooings of lovers who had, for the moment, recalled the Golden Age, when the gods came down to men.
 
"Geary! Geary!" shouted Rebb, rushing towards the fallen wall, and mounting its ruins. There was no response, and Gerald fancied that Rebb had merely made an excuse, so as to get near the river and throw himself in. But, guilty or innocent, the Major was brave to face the sins he had committed, and came down again slowly to the group near the sundial. He was still livid, but more self-controlled.
 
"I shall deal with Geary later," he said thickly, "in the meanwhile I can deal with you."
 
"We are quite ready," said Gerald .
 
"Who are we?" questioned Rebb scathingly.
 
"Myself and my wife."
 
"She is not your wife. A marriage with a madwoman is not legal."
 
Mavis , and clung to Gerald's arm. It was the first time that she had been called mad to her face. "Oh, guardian," she , "how can you say that of me when I was so fond of you?"
 
"You had every reason to be fond of me," said Rebb harshly, and his eyes gleamed as he thought the girl was weakening. "I gave you a happy home, in this place, because your brain was not strong enough to bear the troubles of this world."
 
Mavis withdrew her hand from Gerald's arm, and looked scornfully at the , whom she now saw in his true colors. "You kept me here that you might enjoy the money which my father left to me," she declared, in tones, "you betrayed the trust your dead friend placed in you. I was a weak girl, and an ignorant one, to believe in your lies: but now," she added, stepping forward a pace, "now, Major Rebb," and her use of the name showed the attitude she intended to adopt, "I call upon you to give me back my money, and leave this place, which belongs to me."
 
"No madwoman can possess money," said Mrs. Crosbie . She saw the Major's income was about to be lost, and that it would be useless to marry him. "Michael, call the police and have her removed."
 
"One moment," said Gerald quietly. "You go too fast, Mrs. Crosbie. But I am glad to see you at last as you really are. I thought you were my friend. I now see that you are my enemy. My wife is , and, as her husband, I shall see that her is proved."
 
"Call the police--call the police!" cried Mrs. Crosbie furiously; and she broke from her mother's grip. "How dare you stand there and insult me, Gerald? I was your friend, and I will be your friend still, if you will shut up that girl, and apologize."
 
Tod laughed at the weakness of this speech. "If you cannot find anything better to say, Mrs. Crosbie, you had better hold your tongue," he said . "Even if Mrs. Haskins is shut up the money still belongs to her husband. Major Rebb has lost that for ever. It is the money you are after, madam."
 
"Yes, it is; yes, it is," said Mrs. Crosbie, reckless, and defying the efforts of her mother to keep her silent. "If you knew the miserable years of poverty I have had you would not wonder at my wishing for the money. My marriage with Michael will save me from shame and and--and----" She choked with terror and rage, and Mrs. Berch pulled her back roughly.
 
"Are you a fool to talk like this?" she muttered. "Hold your tongue, you silly child." She shook her angrily. "Wait until Michael settles this affair. Major Rebb?" she turned inquiringly to her proposed son-in-law.
 
"I shall settle this affair very speedily," said Rebb, walking across the lawn towards the archway, "my man shall go for the police. Or, better still, that coachman who drove you from Silbury, Mavis, shall go back to bring Morgan. I am very sorry that you have thrust yourself into danger. But I should not be doing my duty by society if I did not have you ."
 
"As a lunatic?" asked Mavis scornfully. She had quite lost her old of the Major by this time.
 
"As a murderess," he retorted.
 
"Prove that," said Haskins, stepping in Rebb's path.
 
"Out of my way," Rebb, looking dangerous.
 
"You have brought a serious against my wife," persisted the young man, "and I intend to make you prove it. On what grounds do you say that my wife is crazy?"
 
"She has been all her life," said the Major, forced to answer, for he saw very plainly that Haskins would knock him down if he attempted to pass the archway. Not that the Major feared a fight, but his situation was so desperate that he wished to adjust things as quietly as possible. His threat to call the police was , as Gerald knew, and because Gerald did know Rebb was furious.
 
"Prove that she has been mad all her life," said Haskins coolly. "Mavis has been with Mrs. Pelham Odin since she left here, and that very clever old woman cannot see that my wife is mad: nor can Macandrew, nor Arnold, nor anyone else."
 
"I can, I can!" cried Mrs. Crosbie, with a bright red spot burning on either cheek, and looked very angry.
 
"Ah! you are a prejudiced witness, seeing that you wish to marry Major Rebb, for the income he is now losing."
 
"That he has lost," interposed Tod, in a dry legal tone: "the conditions of Julian Durham's will have been fulfilled, and Mrs. Haskins now takes possession of her property."
 
"How can you prove that my wife is mad?" asked Gerald again, and taking no notice of the interruption, "have you had her examined by two doctors, according to law?"
 
"No," replied Rebb .
 
"Then how dare you shut her up in this house? I shall bring an action against you, on behalf of my wife, for false ."
 
"You had better think twice before you do that," said the Major, in icy tones, "for I shall retort with an accusation of murder."
 
"You say that my wife murdered Bellaria?"
 
"I do," said Rebb . "I swear to it."
 
"I dare say; but you have yet to prove your accusa............