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Page 29
Marquis gathered up the bits of torn paper and put them into his
pocket with the switched-off flash.
"I wish I knew that," he said.
"Knew what?"
"Which path they have taken," he replied; "there seem to be two
branching from this point, but they pass over a bed of
pine-needles and that retains no impression . . . . Where do
these paths lead?"
I did not know that any paths came into the road at this point.
But the island is veined over with old paths. The lead of paths
here, however, was fairly evident.
"They must come out somewhere on the sea," I said.
"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 in the golden
bracken, with the glory of the moon on her; her arms hanging, her
lips parted, her great eyes wide with terror - as lovely in her
desperate extremity as a dream, as, a painted picture. I don't
know how long I was down there, but when I finally got up, and,
following along the path behind the spur of rock, came out onto
the open sea, I found Sir Henry Marquis. He was standing with
his hands in the pockets of his loose tweed coat, and he was
cursing softly:
"The ferry and the mainland are patroled . . . I didn't think of
their having an ocean-going yacht . . . ."
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