He went on through the darkness, following, following, following
distracted Minnie, who, with the fateful words still ringing in her
ears, hardly knew whither she hurried.

Colonel Ashley, in spite of the desperate manner in which the chase had
begun, felt that he was safe from observation. He had on dark clothes,
which did not contrast so strongly with the night as did the light and
filmy dress of Minnie Webb. Besides, she was too distracted to notice
that she was being followed.

"She is going to the bridge, and the tide is in," mused the detective.
"I didn't think she had that much spunk--for it does take spunk to
attempt anything like this in the dark. However, I'll try to get there
as soon as she does."

The fleeing girl in white passed over an open moor, fleeced here and
there with scanty bushes, which gave the detective all the cover he
needed. But the girl did not look back, and the night was dark. The
clouds were thicker too, and the very air seemed so full of rain that
an incautious movement would bring it spattering about one's head, as a
shake of a tree, after a shower, precipitates the drops.

And then there suddenly loomed, like grotesque shadows on the night, two
other figures at the very end of the bridge that Minnie Webb sought to
cross. They seemed to bar her way, and yet they were as much startled as
she, for they drew back on her approach.

And Colonel Ashley, stealing his way up unseen, heard from Minnie Webb
the startled ejaculation:

"LeGrand! You here? And who--who is this?"

Then, as if in defiance, or perhaps to see who the challenger was, the
figure standing beside that of LeGrand Blossom flashed a little pocket
electric torch. And by the gleam of it Colonel Ashley saw the large
blonde woman again.

"Morocco Kate!" he murmured. "So she is mixed up in it after all! I
think I begin to see daylight in spite of the darkness. Morocco Kate!"

Then, crouching down behind some bushes, he waited and listened and
thought swiftly.

"Speak to me!" implored Minnie of the young man. "What does it mean,
LeGrand? Why are you here with--with--"

"He knows my name well enough, if he wants to tell it," broke in the
other. "I'm not ashamed of it, either. But who are you, I'd like to
know? I never saw you before!" and the blonde woman flashed her light
full on Minnie's white face.

And as the girl shrank back, Morocco Kate, so called, sneered:

"Some one else he's got on a string, I suppose! Ho!