ere made of cotton, and catch a
bullet in his hands, was not the sort of criminal he had been trained to
hunt. As for Von Hamner, he was in a state of utter collapse. He dropped
upon a chair, a pitiable spectacle of craven fear, looking about half
his real size so physically shrunken did he seem.

"Let the devil go, Hendry," he mumbled. "He is more than man. What is
the use? If you cannot shoot him, you cannot hang him, and if handcuffs
won't hold him, prison doors won't. Let us go and leave the devil to
himself. I've had enough of it."

"But perhaps the devil has not," said Phadrig, with a politeness which
was infuriating in its mildness. "You gentlemen will understand that I
do not wish to have this espionage going on any longer. If you cannot
promise that it shall stop at once I shall, for my own protection, have
to suggest to you that you shall remove yourselves, as the others have
done."

"No, no, not that, man, not that!" shouted Von Hamner, springing from
his seat and making for the door. "I have done with the whole business,
curse it! Let me go, let me go! Hendry, do as you like, but do it alone.
I have finished."

Before Hendry could reply, or before Von Hamner could reach it, the door
was flung open, and Franklin Marmion strode into the room. Von Hamner
crawled back to his chair. He did not like the look of a dead man who
had come to life again. Nicol Hendry held out his hand, and said:

"And is it really you, Professor? Mr Amena here has just had news that
you were dead--'fallen overboard in the Baltic from Prince Oscarovitch's
yacht. Body not recovered,' is what the telegram says."

"The body is here right enough, M. Hendry. I did not fall overboard. I
was bound hand and foot, had a mass of iron tied to my feet, and was
thrown out of a port-hole by the Prince and his captain. Of course, I
got rid of the rope and the iron even more easily than this man got rid
of your handcuffs a short time ago, and after keeping myself afloat for
half an hour or so, I was picked up by a fishing-boat which took me to
Stralsund. I got a change of clothes there, and came home _via_ Hamburg
and Ostend. My daughter has gone on in the yacht to Oscarburg, where
the Prince expects to make her his wife, and where she will make a very
considerable fool of him. That is all, and now I suppose I had better
deal with this man."

"Mercy, mercy, Thou Who Knowest! Pity, pity!"

Phadrig raised his hands above his head, turned round t