THE LONELY STRONGHOLD

CONTENTS

I The Palatine Bank
II Olwen At Home
III "What is a Pele Exactly?"
IV Her First Offer
V Traveller's Joy
VI Commencing Acquaintance
VII The Dark Tower
VIII The First Day
IX Indian Magic
X A Queer Household
XI Miss Lily Martin
XII A Confidence: and Some Spying
XIII Ninian's Defence
XIV A Fresh Start
XV A Cold Walk
XVI A Little Friction
XVII Balmayne's Warning
XVIII Visitors
XIX A Discovery
XX The Philtre
XXI By the Loughside
XXII The Mile-Castle
XXIII What the Dawn Brought
XXIV The Final Warning

THE
LONELY STRONGHOLD

CHAPTER I

THE PALATINE BANK

The sleet drove spitefully against the dirty windows of the stuffy room behind the Palatine Bank in the High Street of Bramforth.

The air was close, without being warm; a smell of tea and toasted bread lingered upon it. The clock struck, and the girls who sat upon their high stools, cramped over columns of figures, straightened their backs with long sighs of relief.

"Snakes! What weather!" muttered Miss Hand as she pushed back her stool until it almost overbalanced in her efforts to gaze at the December night without.

"With my usual luck, came without a gamp this morning," grumbled Miss Turner, collecting loose sheets with a dexterity born of long practice.

"And you've got a mile to walk when you get off the tram," exclaimed Miss Donkin sympathetically.

Mrs. Barnes, who presided, seated not at a desk but at a central table, wiped her pen, looking across the zoom with knitted brows.

"It has struck, Miss Innes," said she.

The click of the typewriter went on nevertheless, and the operator replied without desisting from her work. "Let me get to the foot of this page, please."

There began the rustle and murmur of the girls leaving their places, in what was described by the bank managers as "The ladies' room." Mabel Hirst, a pretty girl with dark eyes, ran to the fire and held her chilblained hands to its warmth. "Oh, my goody," said she, "when will old Storky start in on that 'chauffage centrale' which he is always gassing about?"

"At the coming of the coquecigrues,