towards the
_Belted Will_ whose riding light was discernible right ahead.

"We must look out for the buoys, sir," said the gruff-voiced man, as the
breeze freshened up and the heavy boat quickened her speed.

"All right," said Cressingham, and pulling out a cigar from his overcoat
he bent his head and struck a light.

Ere he raised it the white-haired man had sprung upon him like a
tiger, and seized his throat in his brawny hands. For a minute or
so Cressingham struggled in that deadly grip, and then lay limp and
insensible in the bottom of the boat.

Challoner, with malignant joy, leaned over him with a world of hate in
his black eyes, and then proceeded to business.

Lifting the unconscious man he carried him for'ard, and, placing him
upon a thwart, gagged and bound him securely. Then he went aft and,
taking the tiller, hauled the sheet in and kept the boat away again upon
her course for the _Belted Will_.

He passed within a quarter of a mile of the huge, black mass with the
bright riding light shining upon the fore-stay, and the look-out from
the steamer took no notice of the boat as she swept past toward the open
sea.

*****

Daylight at last. For six hours the boat had swept before the strong
northerly wind, and the land lay nearly thirty miles astern, lost in a
sombre bank of heavy clouds and mist. Challoner had taken off his rough
overcoat and thrown it over the figure of his enemy. He did not want him
to perish of cold. And as he steered he fixed his eyes, lighted up with
an unholy joy, upon the bent and crushed figure before him.

Cressingham was conscious now, and stared with horror-filled eyes at the
grim creature in the craft before him--a gaunt, dark-faced man, clad in
a striped guernsey and thin cotton pants, with a worn and ragged woollen
cap stuck upon his thick masses of white curly hair. Who was he? A
madman.

Challoner seemed to take no notice of him, and looked out upon the
threatening aspect of sea and sky with an unconcerned face. Presently he
hauled aft the sheet a bit, and kept the boat on a more westerly course,
and the bound and wondering man on the for'ard thwart watched his
movements intently.

The boat had made a little water, and the white-headed man stooped and
baled it out carefully; then he looked up and caught his prisoner's eye.

"Ha, ha, Cressingham, how are you? Isn't it delightful that we should
meet again?"

A strange inarticulate cry broke from Cressingham.

"W