She advanced and took his arm in a wifely grasp. Robert, feeling the chains imminent, resolved to play his last card. It was his sole remaining hope of freedom. Bruskly he freed his arm. Then with incredible agility he ran to the aeroplane and scrambled into the pilot's seat. "Now, then!" he said grimly; "you admit that I am to be head, and I'll come down. Otherwise I'll start this infernal machine. I don't much care what happens."
"Robert!" screamed his wife, shaken out of her composure. "Oh, Robert! come down!"
"Not till you promise!" he said, fumbling at unaccustomed levers. "Here, sir! how do you start it?"
"You fool!" shouted Billing, alarmed, as chance directed Robert to the object of his search. "Stand clear!" he screamed, fearing the propeller would start and hit the bystanders. He pulled Beatrice aside, and Tony did the same for Mrs. Hedderwick. "Stop it, you fool! No!—the other lever! The machine will be up in a minute."
"Promise!" screamed Robert, like one possessed. He was playing for life now, and was past caring.
"I—I promise!" wailed Mrs. Hedderwick, as the propeller began to move, and then at last Robert obeyed the frantic instructions of Billing and stopped the engine. He descended with all the honors of war.
"You will excuse us," he said with a pale smile, taking Mrs. Hedderwick by the arm. "We are stopping at The Happy Heart to-night. Perhaps, to-morrow...."
He retired at the right moment, his wife beneath his manly protecting arm. "There! there!" he whispered soothingly as they walked off; "it's all right now, my love! You mustn't be frightened."
"Oh, Robert!" said Mrs. Hedderwick. "How could you—how could you do it! I—I didn't know you had it in you!"
Robert expanded a hero's chest.