or more beyond the last of the scattered villas
and cottages which form the eastern suburb of the port, when he saw
the elusive cab drawn up by the roadside. The horse was steaming as
though it had been driven at a great pace, and the driver stood near,
smoking a cigarette, and protecting himself from the persistent
downpour by an umbrella.

Dale soon reached the man, and said breathlessly, in his slow French:

"Where are the gentlemen?"

The cabman, who had evidently been paid to hold his tongue, merely
shrugged. Dale, breathing hard, laid a heavy hand on his shoulder,
whereupon the other answered: "I don't know."

This, of course, was a lie, and the fact that it was a lie alarmed
Dale quite as much as any of the sinister incidents which had already
befallen. For one thing, there was no house into which five men could
have gone. On each side of the road were bleak sandhills; to the right
was the sea, gray and lowering beneath a leaden-hued sky that seemed
to weep above a dead earth. Here, undoubtedly, was the cab, since Dale
could swear to both horse and man. Where, then, were its occupants?

Having to depend upon his wits, he gave no further heed to the
Frenchman, but, fancying that he saw vestiges of recent footmarks on
the right, or seaward, side of the road, and dragging the bicycle with
him, he climbed to the top of the nearest dune, as he believed that a
view of the sands could be obtained from that point. He was right. The
sea was at a greater distance than he imagined would be the case, but
a wide strip of firm sand, its wet patches glistening dully in the
half-light, extended to the water's edge almost from the base of the
hillock on which he stood.

At first, his anxious eyes strained through the haze in vain, until
some circling seagulls caught his attention, and then he discerned
some vague forms silhouetted against a brighter belt of the sea to the
northeast.

Three of the figures were black and motionless, but two gave an eerie
suggestion of whiteness and movement. Abandoning the bicycle, and
hardly realizing why he should be so perturbed, Dale ran forward.
Twice he stumbled and fell amidst the stringy heath grass, but he was
up again in a frenzy of haste, and soon was near enough to the group
of men to see that Medenham and Marigny, bare-headed and in their
shirt sleeves, were fighting with swords.

Dale's eyes were now half-blinded with perspiration, for he had ridden
fast through the mud from