myself," she added, with a laugh
which somehow grated upon me. "What are you doing here?"

"Watching the dead," I answered grimly.

She looked at me for an explanation. I pointed to the dark object by
the side of the creek. She gave a violent start. Then she screamed and
caught hold of my arm.

"Mr. Ducaine!" she cried. "What is it?"

"A dead man!" I answered.

Her face was a strange study. There was fear mingled with unwholesome
curiosity, the heritage of her natural lack of refinement. She leaned
over the palings.

"Oh, how horrible!" she exclaimed. "I don't know whether I want to look
or not. I've never seen any one dead."

"I should advise you," I said, "to go away."

It was apparently the last thing she desired to do. Of the various
emotions which had possessed her, curiosity was the one which survived.

"You are sure he is dead?" she asked.

"Quite," I answered.

"Was he drowned, then?"

"I think," I replied, "that he has been washed up by the tide. There
has probably been a shipwreck."

"Gracious!" she exclaimed. "It is just a sailor, then?"

"I have not looked at his face," I answered, "and I should not advise
you to. He has been tossed about and injured. His clothes, though, are
not a seaman's."

She passed through a gap in the palings.

"I must look just a little closer," she exclaimed. "Do come with me,
Mr. Ducaine. I'm horribly afraid."

"Then don't go near him," I advised. "A dead man is surely not a
pleasant spectacle for you. Come away, Miss Moyat."

But she had advanced to within a couple of yards of him. Then she
stopped short, and a little exclamation escaped from her lips.

"Why, Mr. Ducaine," she cried out, "this is the very man who stopped me
last night outside our house, and asked the way to your cottage."

CHAPTER IV

MISS MOYAT'S PROMISE

We stood looking at one another on the edge of the marsh. In the clear
morning sunlight I had no chance of escape or subterfuge. There was
terror in my face, and she could see it.

"You--you cannot be sure!" I exclaimed. "It may not be the same man."

"It is the same man," she answered confidently. "He stopped me and
asked if I could direct him to your house. It was about half an hour
after you had gone. He spoke very softly and almost like a foreigner.
I told him exactly where your cottage was. Didn't he come to you?"

"No," I answered. "I have never seen him before in my life."

"Why do you look--so terrified?" she asked.