d.

"Right," he cried. "Take either, and let's be off... Madame's cigarette
was not quite cold when I picked it up."

I was right about the direction of the paths but, as it happened, the
one Marquis took was nearly double the distance of the other to the sea;
and I have wondered always, if it was chance that selected the one taken
by the assailants of the cut-under as it was chance that selected the
one taken by us.

Marquis was instantly gone, and I hurried along the path, running
nearly due east. There was light enough entering from the brilliant moon
through the tree-tops to make out the abandoned trail.

And as I hurried, Marquis' contradicting expressions seemed to adjust
themselves into a sort of order, and all at once I understood what had
happened. The Brazilian adventurer had not taken the loss of his wife
and the fortune in English pounds sterling, lying down. He had followed
to recover them.

I now saw clearly the reason for everything that had happened: the
attack on the driver, and my guest's concern to get rid of the English
money which she discovered remaining in her possession; this man would
have no knowledge of her gold certificates but he would be searching
for his English pounds. And if she came clear of any trace of these
five-pound notes, she might disclaim all knowledge of them and perhaps
send him elsewhere on his search, since it was always the money and not
the woman that he sought.

This explanation was hardly realized before it was confirmed.

I came out abruptly onto a slope of bracken, and before me at a few
paces on the path were Madame Barras and two men; one at some distance
in advance of her, disappearing at the moment behind a spur of the
slope that hid us from the sea, and I got no conception of him; but the
creature at her heels was a huge foreign beast of a man, in the dress of
a common sailor.

What happened was over in a moment.

I was nearly on the man when I turned out of the wood, and with a shout
to Madame Barras I struck at him with the heavy walking-stick. But the
creature was not to be taken unaware; he darted to one side, wrenched
the stick out of my hand, and dashed its heavy-weighted head into
my face. I went down in the bracken, but I carried with me into
unconsciousness a vision of Madame Barras that no shadow of the
lengthening years can blur.

She had swung round sharply at the attack behind her, and she stood
bare-haired and bare-shouldered, knee-deep