le like a skilled waterman.

"You like my brother?" Fenella asked.

The girl looked at her gratefully.

"I think that he is the most charming person I ever knew in my
life," she declared.

CHAPTER XXII

THE REFUGEE'S RETURN

Sabatini's attitude of indolence lasted only until they had turned
from the waterway into the main river. Then he sat up and pointed a
little way down the stream.

"Can you cross over somewhere there?" he asked.

Arnold nodded and punted across towards the opposite bank.

"Get in among the rushes," Sabatini directed. "Now listen to me."

Arnold came and sat down.

"You don't mean to tire me," he remarked.

Sabatini smiled.

"Do you seriously think that I asked you to bring me on the river
for the pleasure of watching your prowess with that pole, my
friend?" he asked. "Not at all. I am going to ask you to do me a
service."

Arnold was suddenly conscious that Sabatini, for the first time
since he had known him, was in earnest. The lines of his
marble-white face seemed to have grown tenser and firmer, his manner
was the manner of a man who meets a crisis.

"Turn your head and look inland," he said. "You follow the lane
there?"

Arnold nodded.

"Quite well," he admitted.

"At the corner," Sabatini continued, "just out of sight behind that
tall hedge, is my motor car. I want you to land and make your way
there. My chauffeur has his instructions. He will take you to a
village some eight miles up the river, a village called Heslop Wood.
There is a boat-builder's yard at the end of the main street. You
will hire a boat and row up the river. About three hundred yards up,
on the left hand side, is an old, dismantled-looking house-boat. I
want you to board it and search it thoroughly."

Sabatini paused, and Arnold looked at him, perplexed.

"Search it!" he exclaimed. "But for whom? For what?"

"It is my belief," Sabatini went on, "that Starling is hiding there.
If he is, I want you to bring him to me by any means which occur to
you. I had sooner he were dead, but that is too much to ask of you.
I want him brought in the motor car to that point in the lane there.
Then, if you succeed, you will bring him down here and your mission
is ended. Will you undertake it?"

Arnold never hesitated for a moment. He was only too thankful to be
able to reply in the affirmative. He put on his coat and propelled
the punt a little further into the rushes.

"I'll do my best," he asserted.