now, in the very hour when he had been
caught red-handed in a serious crime against society, he should be
effecting a leisurely escape--an escape which left no clue behind.

The sea was utterly calm and blue in the morning sun. The dinghy rocked
itself lazily in the swell of the yacht's departure. As the mist cleared
away the outline of the shore became more distinct, and it appeared as
if Ostend was distant scarcely a cable's length. The white dome of the
great Kursaal glittered in the pale turquoise sky, and the smoke of
steamers in the harbour could be plainly distinguished. On the offing
was a crowd of brown-sailed fishing luggers returning with the night's
catch. The many-hued bathing-vans could be counted on the distant beach.
Everything seemed perfectly normal. It was difficult for either Nella or
her companion to realize that anything extraordinary had happened within
the last hour. Yet there was the yacht, not a mile off, to prove to them
that something very extraordinary had, in fact, happened. The yacht was
no vision, nor was that sinister watching figure at its stern a vision,
either.

'I suppose Jules was too surprised and too feeble to inquire how I came
to be on board his yacht,' said the Prince, taking the oars.

'Oh! How did you?' asked Nella, her face lighting up. 'Really, I had
almost forgotten that part of the affair.'

'I must begin at the beginning and it will take some time,' answered the
Prince. 'Had we not better postpone the recital till we get ashore?'

'I will row and you shall talk,' said Nella. 'I want to know now.'

He smiled happily at her, but gently declined to yield up the oars.

'Is it not sufficient that I am here?' he said.

'It is sufficient, yes,' she replied, 'but I want to know.'

With a long, easy stroke he was pulling the dinghy shorewards. She sat
in the stern-sheets.

'There is no rudder,' he remarked, 'so you must direct me. Keep the
boat's head on the lighthouse. The tide seems to be running in strongly;
that will help us. The people on shore will think that we have only been
for a little early morning excursion.'

'Will you kindly tell me how it came about that you were able to save my
life, Prince?' she said.

'Save your life, Miss Racksole? I didn't save your life; I merely
knocked a man down.'

'You saved my life,' she repeated. 'That villain would have stopped at
nothing. I saw it in his eye.'

'Then you were a brave woman, for you showed no fear of d