--was
kneeling beside me. Sholto was with us too, looking incredibly wise in
a pair of motor-goggles.

"So you see, darling," said Myra, "the glasses cured me completely,
and I can see just as well as ever." And I shall not repeat what I
said in reply to such glorious news.

"Tell me, dear," I asked shortly, "what exactly happened with Dennis?
I haven't quite got that."

"Well, he saw me on my way to Glasnabinnie," she explained, "and was
determined to follow. He couldn't find a boat of any kind, so he swam!
Angus saw him in the water and ran and told daddy. When they found
there was no boat they went and fetched the one on the loch, carried
it down to the sea, and called Hamish. Then they pulled across. Then,
you see, when Dennis had his heart attack, I thought he was only
pretending. I thought he saw that we should never be able to get away
again, and that if he pretended to be dead they would leave us alone.
So I followed his lead. I was terribly frightened when I couldn't make
him answer me after they had gone, but before I could do anything
daddy and the men arrived. Angus stopped with me, and told me where
the _Fiona_ had gone. We took the _Baltimore_ because she is much
faster than our boat. He must have been a duffer to lose that race we
had. And then daddy and Hamish took Dennis--I refuse to call him Mr.
Burnham after this--and brought him here and sent for Dr. Whitehouse."

"I'm thankful he's out of danger," I said fervently.

"But the doctor says he must take it very, very gently for a long
time, and he won't be able to walk much for months. Did he know he
had this heart trouble?"

I had scarcely finished explaining the extent of Dennis's heroism when
Garnesk arrived.

"Hilderman's dead!" he said. "He made a full confession. It seems he
is a German, and his name's von Hilder. He has lived most of his life
in America. He is a brilliant physicist, and has done some big things
with electricity and light. He was here to prepare the submarine base
you found, and he also got on with a new invention--The Green Ray. Of
course he didn't give the secret of that away, but we have the
searchlight, and I have already tumbled to it partly. It is
practically a new form of light.

"It is formed by passing violet and orange rays through tourmaline and
quartz respectively. The accident to Miss McLeod was their first
intimation of its blinding properties, and to the end he knew nothing
about the suffocation part of i