iful. He scarcely noticed Lenora's deshabille, which was in a
measure concealed by the cloak which Quest had thrown around her.

"My friend!" he exclaimed--"Mr. Quest! It is the devil incarnate against
whom we fight!"

"What do you mean?" Quest demanded.

The Professor wrung his hands.

"I put him in our James the Second prison," he declared. "Why should I
think of the secret passage? No one has used it for a hundred years. He
found it, learnt the trick--"

"You mean," Quest cried--

"He has escaped!" the Professor broke in. "Craig has escaped again! They
are searching for him high and low, but he has gone!"

Quest's arm tightened for a moment in Lenora's. It was curious how he
seemed to have lost at that moment all sense of proportion. Lenora was
safe--the relief of that one thought overshadowed everything else in the
world.

"The fellow can't get far," he muttered.

"Who knows?" the Professor replied dolefully. "The passage--I'll show it
you some day and you'll see how wonderful his escape has been--leads on to
the first floor of the house. He must have got into my dressing-room, for
his old clothes are there and he went away in a suit of mine. No one has
seen him or knows anything about him. All that the local police can find
out is that a man answering somewhat his description caught the morning
train for Southampton from Hamblin Roads."

They had been standing together in a little recess of the hall. Suddenly
Lenora, whose face was turned towards the entrance doors, gave a little
cry. She took a quick step forward.

"Laura!" she exclaimed, wonderingly. "Why, it's Laura!"

They all turned around. A young woman had just entered the hotel, followed
by a porter carrying some luggage. Her arm was in a sling and there was a
bandage around her forehead. She walked, too, with the help of a stick.
She recognized them at once and waved it gaily.

"Hullo, you people?" she cried. "Soon run you to earth, eh?"

They were for a moment dumbfounded; Lenora was the first to find words.
"But when did you start, Laura?" she asked. "I thought you were too ill to
move for weeks."

The girl smiled contemptuously.

"I left three days after you, on the _Kaiser Frederic_," she replied.
"There was some trouble at Plymouth, and we came into Southampton early
this morning, and here I am. But, before we go any farther, tell me about
Craig?"

"We've had him," Quest confessed, "and lost him again. He escaped last
night."