the Winner Sands. The tide was in and the great mudbanks had
disappeared, save that here and there their dun-coloured convexity rose
above the surface like the back of a sleeping leviathan. Overhead a
great flock of wild geese were flapping their way southward, like a broad
arrow against the sky. It was an exhilarating, bracing scene, and
accorded well with her own humour. She felt so full of life and hope
that she could hardly believe that she was the same girl who that very
morning had hurled away the poison bottle, knowing in her heart that
unless she destroyed it she might be tempted to follow her guardian's
sinister suggestions. Yet the incident was real enough, for there were
the fragments of glass scattered over the bare planks of her floor, and
the insidious odour of the drug was still so strong that she opened the
window in order to dissipate it. Looking back at it now, it all seemed
like some hideous nightmare.

She had no very clear idea as to what she expected her friends to do.
That she would be saved, and that speedily, she never for one instant
doubted. She had only to wait patiently and all would be well.
By to-morrow night, at the latest, her troubles would be over.

So thought Girdlestone too, as he sat down below, with his head bent
upon his breast and his eyes looking moodily from under his shaggy brows
at the glowing coals. To-morrow evening would settle the matter once
and for ever. Burt and Ezra would be down by five o'clock, and that
would be the beginning of the end. As to Burt's future there was no
difficulty about that. He was a broken man. If well supplied with
unlimited liquor he would not live long to trouble them. He had nothing
to gain, and everything to lose by denouncing them. Should the worst
come to the worst, the ravings of a dipsomaniac could do little harm to
a man as respected as the African merchant. Every event had been
foreseen and provided for by the old schemer. Above all, he had devised
a method by which even a coroner's inquiry could be faced with impunity,
and which would do away with all necessity for elaborate concealment.

He beckoned Mrs. Jorrocks over to him, for he had been sitting in the
large room, which was used both as a dining-room and as a kitchen.

"What is the latest train to-morrow?" he asked.

"There be one that reaches Bedsworth at a quarter to ten."

"It passes the grounds at about twenty to ten, then?"

"That reg'lar that I could s