ked. In a moment, headed by Ingleston and Gibbons, they started at the
top of their speed, and in less than a quarter of an hour were at bank
side.

"That is the house," the sailor said, pointing to the public, where a
red blind had been lowered at the window, and two men lounged outside
the door to tell any chance customer that might come along he was not
wanted there at present.

Inside a mock trial had been going on, and Mark had been sentenced to
death as a spy, not a voice being raised in his defense. As soon as he
had been lifted up and seated so that he could see the faces of those
present, he recognized the two gamblers, and saw at once that his fate
was sealed; even had they not been there the chance of escape would have
been small. The fact that one of the detectives had been caught under
circumstances when there was but slight chance of its ever being known
how he came to his end, was in itself sufficient to doom him. Several
of the men present had taken him into their confidence, and he had
encouraged them to do so, not that he wanted to entrap them, or that he
intended to do so, but in order to obtain a clew through them as to the
hiding place of the man he was in search of.

The savage exultation on the faces of the two gamblers, however, was
sufficient to extinguish any ray of hope. He felt sure at once that they
had been the authors of his seizure, and that no thought of mercy would
enter the minds of these two scoundrels whose plans he had frustrated,
whose position he had demolished, and to whom he had caused the loss of
a large sum of money. Neither Flash nor Emerson would have taken share
in a crime known to so many had they not been on the point of leaving
England. Their names were known to no one there, and even should some of
these afterwards peach they would at least be safe. Mark had been asked
whether he could deny that he was a member of the detective force, and
had shaken his head. Even if he had told a lie, which he would not do,
the lie would have been a useless one. No one would have believed it,
for the two gamblers would have been witnesses that he was so.

He had been placed in one corner of the room, so that what light there
was would not fall on his face, and had anyone entered they would not
have noticed that he was gagged. One, indeed, had suggested that it
would be better to lay him under one of the benches, but Black Jim said,
with a brutal laugh:

"No, no; it is better that