ery Chayne. With my
own eyes I've seen him pick up a man he didn't like and"--I made an
expressive gesture--"throw him clean away."

"Right O!" said he.

He nodded, winked impudently and walked away. A thought struck me. I
overtook him.

"Where are you staying in Havre?"

He looked at me suspiciously. "What do you want to know for?"

"To save you from being murdered, as you would most certainly be if we
chanced upon the same hotel."

"I'm staying at the Phares--the swagger one on the beach near the
Casino."

"Excellent," said I. "Go on swaggering. Good-bye."

"Good-bye, old pal," said he.

He tilted his white hat to a rakish angle and marched away.

I rejoined Jaffery and Liosha. He still held her wrists; but she stood
unresisting, tense and rigid, with averted head, looking sidewise down.
Her lip quivered, her bosom heaved. Jaffery had mastered her fury, but
now we had to deal with her shame and humiliation.

"Let her go!" I whispered.

Jaffery freed her. She rubbed her wrists mechanically, without moving
her head. I wished Barbara had been there; she would have known exactly
what to do. As it was, we stood by her, somewhat helplessly.

"_Monsieur_," said a voice close by, and we saw our little blue-bloused
porter. He explained that he had been seeking us everywhere. If we did
not make haste we would lose the Paris train.

I replied that as we were not going to Paris, we were not pressed for
time; but this little outside happening broke the situation.

"Better give this fellow your luggage ticket, Liosha," said Jaffery.

She looked about her bewildered and then I noticed on the ground a
leather satchel which she had been carrying. I picked it up. She
extracted the ticket and we all went to the custom-house.

"What's the programme now?" I asked Jaffery.

"Hotel," said he. "This poor girl will want a rest. Besides, we'll have
to stay the night."

"Our friend is staying at the Hotel des Phares."

"Then we'll go to Tortoni's."

An ordinary woman would have drawn down the motor veil which she wore
cockled-up on her travelling hat; but Liosha, grandly unconcerned with
such vanities, showed her young shame-stricken face to all the world. I
felt intensely sorry for her. She realised now from what a blatant
scoundrel she had been saved; but she still bitterly resented our
intervention. "I felt as if I was stripped naked walking between
them"--that was her primitive account later of her state of mind.