triumphed over the north wind.

"The trees in the spinney are snapping like twigs, sir," Grooton
remarked. "There's one lying right across the path outside. But you'll
excuse me, sir--you're not going out!"

"I think so, Grooton," I answered, "for a few minutes. Remember that I
have been a prisoner here for three days. I'm dying for some fresh
air."

"I don't think it's hardly safe, sir," he protested, deprecatingly.
"Not that there's any fear of your being seen: the wind's enough to
carry you over the cliff."

"I shall risk it, Grooton," I answered. "I think that the wind is going
down, and there won't be a soul about. It's too good a chance to miss."

I waited for a momentary lull, and then I opened the door and slipped
out. The first breath of cold strong air was like wine to me after my
confinement, but a moment later I felt my breath taken away, and I was
lifted almost from my feet by a sudden gust. I linked my arm around the
trunk of a swaying pine tree and hung there till the lull came. Up into
the darkness from that unseen gulf below came showers of spray, white as
snow, falling like rain all about me. It was a night to remember.

Presently I turned inland, and reached the park. I left the footpath so
that I should avoid all risk of meeting any one, and followed the wire
fencing which divided the park from the belt of fir trees bordering the
road. I walked for a few hundred yards, and then stopped short.

I had reached the point where that long straight road from Braster
turned sharply away inland for the second time. At a point about a
quarter of a mile away, and rapidly approaching me, came a twin pair of
flaring eyes. I knew at once what they were--the head lights of a motor
car. Without a moment's hesitation I doubled back to the "Brand."

"Grooton!" I called sharply.

Grooton appeared.

"Is any one at Braster Grange?" I asked.

"Not that I have heard of, sir," he answered.

"You do not know whether Mrs. Smith-Lessing is expected back?"

"I have not heard, sir. They left no servants there--not even a
caretaker."

I stepped back again into the night and took the shortest cut across the
park to the house. As I neared the entrance gates I left the path and
crept up close to the plantation which bordered the road. My heart gave
a jump as I listened. I could hear the low level throbbing of a motor
somewhere quite close at hand. The lights had been extinguished, but it
was there waiting. I did not