of his body. I think he felt the meaning of my words
then.

"Stop, Jasper," he gasped, "she's not dead--she's--"

"What?" I asked.

But he did not speak. I do not think he could. I relaxed my hold, but he
lay limp in my arms like a sick child. Never in my life could I hurt an
unresisting man, so I let him fall, and he lay like a log of wood. But
he was still breathing, and I knew that he would live. But my passion
had died away, and so had my strength.

I turned around and I saw that Eli had mastered the serving-man. He had
placed his hands around his neck, and had I not pulled the dwarf away
the man would have died.

"Eli," I said, picking up the torch, "they will not follow us now.
Come."

But Eli did not want to come. He looked at the men we had mastered, and
his eyes glared with an unearthly light, and like a lion who has tasted
blood he did not seem satisfied.

"An eye for an eye," he said; "tha's what mawther do zay. Iss, an' a
tooth for a tooth."

"Lead the way to the sea, Eli," I said, and like a dog he obeyed. Taking
the torch from me he crawled down the passage, laughing in a strange
guttural way as he went. All the time my mind was resting on Nick
Tresidder's words, "She's not dead. She's--" and in spite of myself hope
came into my heart again, while a thousand wild thoughts flashed through
my mind.

A few minutes later we felt the sea-spray dashing against our faces,
while the winds beat furiously upon us. Below us, perhaps twenty feet
down, the sea thundered on the rocky cliff.

"What are we to do now, Eli?" I asked.

He looked anxiously around him like one in doubt; then he put his
fingers in his mouth, and gave a long piercing whistle.

"Who are you whistling to?"

"He's coming," he answered, looking out over the wild waters.

"Who's coming?"

"The man that told me."

"Who is he?"

"I'll tell 'ee, Maaster Jasper. I've bin 'ere fer days, I have. I was
loppin 'round 'cawse I knawed you was 'ere."

"How did you know?"

"I'll tell 'ee as zoon as we git away, Maaster Jasper. Well, as I was
loppin' round I zeed a man, he looked oal maazed. He spoked to me, and I
spoked to 'ee. Then we got a talkin' 'bout lots o' things. He seemed
afraid to meet anybody, but axed scores ov questions. Oal he tould me
about hisself was that he was an ould smuggler that used to land cargoes
round 'ere. One day I seed a hankerchuff 'angin' from thickey winder,
an' I knawed 'twas yours. I was wonderin' 'ow