"I must come and see if your room is all right."
"Yes, but who are these midnight vigilantes in the garden?" exclaimed Portal. "I believe I hear Bramham!"
Bramham, indeed, it was who came into the light with a crumpled and weeping woman clinging to his arm.
"What the——?" softly demanded Portal of Heaven, and Clem stared. Poppy swiftly recognised Miss Allendner.
"What is it?" she cried, stepping forward.
Miss Allendner only wept more violently.
"This poor lady has been greatly upset," said Bramham, and placed her in a chair. Then he spoke with the brevity of a good man with a bad tale:
"Miss Chard's house has been burnt to the ground; fortunately no one is hurt, but everything is destroyed."
"Burnt! burnt?... everything? My work ... my freedom—" cried Poppy wildly with clasped hands.
"Everything! Nothing left but a few bricks and some melted iron. I wonder you didn't see the flare-up—it lighted the whole bay. The thing was discovered too late to do anything but get Miss Allendner out." His firm brevity left him. "Oh, Lord, I am sorry!" He stared dismally.