h-drop," rejoined Parsons
excitedly. "You can stake your shirt she's bested that dirty little
captain somehow. That's why he's stopping for us."

"But he isn't stopping for us," chimed in the second-lieutenant, and his
dictum was emphasized by his slight lisp. "See, he's started at
full-speed, and that means that he has scored the trick, for his
rascally packet is fitted with turbine engines. He's been fooling us,
sir."

Reggie Beauchamp was generally a clean-mouthed man, but the tea-party
old ladies of Ottermouth would have banned him for evermore could they
have heard the sultry oath that flew from his lips as he realized the
truth of the assertion. Simon Brant, near enough now for his loathsome
personality to be appreciated, was making insulting gestures at them
with the hand which he had just withdrawn from the engine-room
telegraph. And like a hound slipped from the leash the _Cobra_ leapt
forward and went racing to the south-west at forty knots--a speed which
would quickly reduce her to a speck upon the horizon.

And after that--chaos!

CHAPTER XXVIII

TRAVERS NUGENT PAYS

After letting himself in through the door from the moor into the grounds
of The Hut, Travers Nugent paused irresolute. Should he punish that
impudent hussy Enid Mallory by keeping her in the grotto all night and
have her accidentally "found" in the morning, or should he go and
release her now?

In either case he meant to throw the blame on Tuke, whom he could
describe as an irresponsible lunatic--or anything else that came into
his head at the time. He need not be too nice about his excuses, for,
after all, the girl, as a trespasser on his private property, was the
real offender. It would be interesting to know what account she would
give of herself.

On the whole he decided that it would be wiser to go and let her out at
once, and so have done with an incident which he regretted as a blunder
on the part of his too zealous follower. Mr. Vernon Mallory was a
dangerous man to annoy, and, conscious as he was of his veiled
antagonism, Nugent did not want to give him cause for open quarrel. Till
the _Cobra_ had reached her destination, and all traces of her had
been obliterated, Bhagwan Singh's agent knew that he would have to walk
warily indeed.

So he struck into the shrubbery, and on coming to the grotto unlocked
the door with the key which Tuke had left in the keyhole. With a curious
qualm that was not exactly alarm he saw th