rrounding. His awakening was a rude one.

Suddenly a man, concealed behind a bush, sprang out upon him and bore
him irresistibly to the ground!

"Not a word!" rapped his assailant, "or I'll knock you out!"

Stuart glared into the red face lowered so threateningly over his own,
and:

"Sergeant Sowerby!" he gasped.

The grip upon his shoulders relaxed.

"Damn!" cried Sowerby--"if it isn't Dr. Stuart?"

"What is that!" cried another voice from the shelter of the bush.
_"Pardieu!_ say it again! ... Dr. Stuart!"

And Gaston Max sprang out!

"Max!" murmured Stuart, staggering to his feet--"Max!"

_"Nom d'un nom!_ Two dead men meet!" exclaimed Gaston Max. "But
indeed"--he grasped Stuart by both hands and his voice shook with
emotion--"I thank God that I see you!"

Stuart was dazed. Words failed him, and he swayed dizzily.

"I thought _you_ were murdered," said Max, still grasping his hand,
"and I perceive that you had made the same mistake about me! Do you
know what saved me, my friend, from the consequences of that frightful
blow? It was the bandage of 'Le Balafre'!"

"You must possess a skull like a negro's!" said Stuart feebly.

"I believe I have a skull like a baboon!" returned Max, laughing with
joyous excitement. "And you, doctor, you must possess a steel
wind-pipe; for flesh and blood could never have survived the pressure
of that horrible pigtail. You will rejoice to learn that Miguel was
arrested on the Dover boat-train this morning and Ah-Fang-Fu at
Tilbury Dock some four hours ago. So we are both avenged! But we
waste time!"

He unscrewed a flask and handed it to Stuart.

"A terrible experience has befallen you," he said. "But tell me--do
you know where it is--the lair of 'The Scorpion'?"

"I do!" replied Stuart, having taken a welcome draught from the flask.
"Where is Dunbar? We must carefully surround the place or he will
elude us."

"Ah! as he eluded us at 'The Pidgin House'!" cried Max. "Do you know
what happened? They had a motorboat in the very cellar of that warren.
At high tide they could creep out into the cutting, drawing their
craft along from pile to pile, and reach the open river at a point
fifty yards above the house! In the damnable darkness they escaped.
But we have two of them."

"It was all my fault," said Sowerby guiltily. "I missed my spring when
I went for the Chinaman who came out first, and he gave one yell. The
old fox in the shop heard it and the fat was in the fire.