a great
storm and flood did sweep through the valley of the Popri, putting life
in danger and submerging plantations?

It was on this day that Roadmaster found himself at bay in the mangrove
swamp not far from the port of Rahway, where he had expected to find a
schooner to take him to the New Hebrides. It had been arranged for by
a well-paid colleague in crime; but the storm had delayed the schooner,
and the avenging squatters and bushmen were closing in on him at last.
There was flood behind him in the valley, a foodless swamp on the left
of him, open shore and jungle on the right, the swollen sea before him;
and the only avenue of escape closed by Blood Finchley's friends. He had
been eluding his pursuers for days with little food and worse than no
sleep. He knew that he had played his last card and lost; but he had one
thing yet to do, that which even the vilest do, if they can, before
they pay the final penalty--to creep back for a moment into their honest
past, however dim and far away. With incredible skill he had passed
under the very rifles of his hunters, and now stood almost within the
stream of light which came from the window of the sick man's room, where
his sister was. There was to be no more hiding, no more strategy. He
told Gongi and another that he was Roadmaster, and bade them say to his
pursuers, should they appear, that he would come to them upon the shore
when his visit to Louis Bachelor, whom he had known in other days, was
over, indicating the place at some distance from the house where they
would find him.

He entered the house. The noise of the opening door brought his sister
to the room.

At last she said: "Oh, Edward, you are free at last!"

"Yes, I am free at last," he quietly replied.

"I have always prayed for you, Edward, and for this."

"I know that, Barbara; but prayer cannot do anything, can it? You see,
though I was born a gentleman, I had a bad strain in me. I wonder
if, somewhere, generations back, there was a pirate or a gipsy in our
family." He had been going to say highwayman, but paused in time. "I
always intended to be good and always ended by being bad. I wanted to be
of the angels and play with the devils also. I liked saints--you are a
saint, Barbara--but I loved all sinners too. I hope when--when I die,
that the little bit of good that's in me will go where you are. For the
rest of me, it must be as it may."

"Don't speak like that, Edward, please, dear. Yes, you hav