, Stair," she said, "get your gun!"

"The man is swimming," said Stair. "I think, instead, I had better get a
dry suit of clothes. He cannot be very dangerous. I have my sheath-knife
if--but there is no fear. I can handle him!"

"Run no risks, Stair. I have ventured my all upon you! You are
very ... necessary to me!"

Ah, if he had only known that the word in her heart which she did not
let her lips speak was not "necessary" but "precious"!

They went down together to the long spit of rock against which the
swimmer was being driven. Stair looked at the black head on the surface
of the water and realized that there might be trouble for both of them
in the immediate future. He ordered Patsy to stand back.

"Why should I?" said Patsy, surprised at his tone.

"Because I tell you to!" said Stair Garland sharply, "there--on the top
of the rock. Crouch down! Do not move till I give you leave." Then he
began to wade out, and as he went she saw him assure himself that his
sheath-knife moved sweetly in its scabbard with the click of
easy-fitting steel.

"Eben McClure!" he cried, as in the long reach of the overhand stroke
the man's face was turned towards him, "what are you doing here?"

Stair helped him out of the water. The man could hardly gasp at first,
but in a moment words returned to him.

"The lost dog," he said hoarsely, "follows the only man who is kind to
it."

And he would have fallen on the rock spit, if Stair had not caught him
in his arms, and carried him to the little cove.

CHAPTER XXXIX

REBEL GALLOWAY

"You were here on this spot with your command, Captain de Raincy,"
trumpeted Colonel Laurence, "and yet you let the prison-breakers ride
off! You ought to have attacked them, sir. You know you ought! It is as
much as your coat is worth. The whole crew of them were there--the low
fellow who shot the Duke where he drove into the infernal
barricades--and the girl who ran away from London to send the fiery
cross through the country. Damn it, sir, it makes me furious only to
think of it. And yet, with a chance like that, you sat your horse and
let them ride off!"

"I need not, I suppose," said Louis calmly, "point out to you that there
were some hundreds of them, at least ten to one, and that most of them
were known to me--though not, I believe, those who remained behind to
fire the prison."

"Well," said Colonel Laurence bitterly, "whether known to you or not,
you let them ride off unharme