" cried the voice again, and the footsteps advanced two
paces.

At the instant that Rex raised the weapon to fire, a vivid flash of
lightning showed him, on his right hand, on the ghastly and pallid
ocean, two boats, the hindermost one apparently within a few yards of
him. The men looked like corpses. In the distance rose Cape Surville,
and beneath Cape Surville was the hungry sea. The scene vanished in an
instant--swallowed up almost before he had realized it. But the shock
it gave him made him miss his aim, and, flinging away the pistol with a
curse, he turned down the path and fled. McNab followed.

The path had been made by frequent passage from the station, and Rex
found it tolerably easy running. He had acquired--like most men who live
much in the dark--that cat-like perception of obstacles which is due
rather to increased sensitiveness of touch than increased acuteness
of vision. His feet accommodated themselves to the inequalities of the
ground; his hands instinctively outstretched themselves towards the
overhanging boughs; his head ducked of its own accord to any obtrusive
sapling which bent to obstruct his progress. His pursuer was not so
fortunate. Twice did John Rex laugh mentally, at a crash and scramble
that told of a fall, and once--in a valley where trickled a little
stream that he had cleared almost without an effort--he heard a splash
that made him laugh outright. The track now began to go uphill, and Rex
redoubled his efforts, trusting to his superior muscular energy to
shake off his pursuer. He breasted the rise, and paused to listen. The
crashing of branches behind him had ceased, and it seemed that he was
alone.

He had gained the summit of the cliff. The lights of the Neck were
invisible. Below him lay the sea. Out of the black emptiness came puffs
of sharp salt wind. The tops of the rollers that broke below were
blown off and whirled away into the night--white patches, swallowed up
immediately in the increasing darkness. From the north side of the bay
was borne the hoarse roar of the breakers as they dashed against the
perpendicular cliffs which guarded Forrestier's Peninsula. At his
feet arose a frightful shrieking and whistling, broken at intervals by
reports like claps of thunder. Where was he? Exhausted and breathless,
he sank down into the rough scrub and listened. All at once, on the
track over which he had passed, he heard a sound that made him bound to
his feet in deadly fear--the bay