see,
only a number of men in the distance, spread out over the face of the
causse and quartering it like beagles. I reckoned I knew what sort of
game they were hunting, and slid down from that couronne and travelled.
But they'd seen me, and somebody sounded the view-halloo. It was grand
exercise for me and great sport for them. When I couldn't totter
another yard I fell into a hole into the ground--one of those
avens--and crawled into a sort of little cave, and lay there listening,
to the suck and gurgle of millions of gallons of nice cool water
running to waste under my feet, and me dying the death of a dog with
thirst.

"After a while I couldn't stand it any longer. I crawled out, prepared
to surrender, give up the plunder, and lick the boots of any man who'd
slip me a cup of water. But for some reason they'd given up the chase.
I saw no more of them, whoever they were. And a little later I found a
peasant's hut, and watered myself till I swelled up like a poisoned
pup. They gave me a brush-down, there, and something to eat besides,
and put me on my way to Millau. It seemed that I was a hundred miles
from anywhere else, so it was Millau for mine if it meant a life
sentence in a French prison.

"I sneaked into the town after dark, and took the first train north.
Nobody took any notice of me. I couldn't see the use of going all round
Robin Hood's barn, as I'd have had to in order to make Lyons. By the
time I'd got there, de Lorgnes would have given up and gone on to
Paris."

Phinuit finished his drink. "I'll say it was a gay young party. The
next time I feel the call to crime, believe me! I'm going out and
snatch nursing bottles from kids asleep in their prams.... But they
_must_ be asleep."

Monk lifted himself by sections from his chair.

"It was a good yarn first time I heard it," he mused aloud. "But now, I
notice, even the Sybarite is getting restless."

In the course of Phinuit's narrative the black disks of night framed by
the polished brass circles of the stern ports had faded out into dusky
violet, then into a lighter lilac, finally into a warm yet tender blue.
Now the main deck overhead was a sounding-board for thumps and rustle
of many hurried feet.

"Pilot come aboard, you think?" Phinuit enquired; and added, as Monk
nodded and cast about for the visored white cap of his office: "Didn't
know pilots were such early birds."

"They're not, as a rule. But if you treat 'em right, they'll listen to
rea