you to it," said the Vicar, and did so.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

HOW THEY LAID THE DEVIL BY THE HEELS

When it began to be noised abroad that Gard was going to and fro across
the Coupee, even by night, as if nothing had ever happened there, the
Sark men shrugged their shoulders and said, "Pardie!--sooner him than
me--oui-gia!"

It was obviously necessary, however, that this should be known. Even the
cormorant does not fish where fish are never found.

But when he went to and fro by night, he went mailed--according to the
Doctor's ideas--and armed--according to the Senechal's; and each night
the Doctor and the Senechal went quietly down, some time in advance, and
lay hidden on the headlands with their guns, and never took their eyes
off him and all his surroundings, while he was in sight.

And Gard, in nearing the Little Sark cutting, always kept carefully to
the right-hand side of the path, though it was somewhat crumbly there
and had fallen away down the slope towards Grande Greve. For he had gone
cautiously over the ground beforehand, and decided that if there was any
possibility of being knocked overboard unawares, he would prefer to go
over the much gentler slope on the right, where one might even at a
pinch find lodgment among the rubble and bushes, than over the sheer
fall into Coupee Bay, where you could drop a stone almost to the shingle
below.

Nance knew nothing whatever of the matter, or she would undoubtedly and
most reasonably have had something to say about it. But knowledge of it
could only upset her, and so perhaps himself, and he had carefully kept
it from her. Little Sark, moreover, was more isolated than ever by
reason of the Coupee mystery, and word of his goings and comings--save
such as had La Closerie for their object in the day-time--never reached
her.

They were in grievous sorrow down there over Bernel. Gard still preached
hope, but each day's delay in its realisation seemed to them to make it
the more unlikely, and their hearts were very sore.

Julie had gone about her work for days after Gard's return like a bereft
tigress. Then one morning she locked the door of her house, put the key
in her pocket, and took the cutter for Guernsey; and none regretted her
going.

And, as it turned out, though that had not been her intention at the
time, it was the last Sark was to see of her. Rumours reached them later
of her marriage to a fellow-countryman, with whom she had gone to
France. T