sented its side to them.

"They're looking for us," said Marcus.

The darkness had come down, and he headed straight for the east.

There was no question that the destroyer was on an errand of discovery.
A white beam of light shot out from her decks, and began to feel along
the sea. And then when they thought it had missed them, it dropped on
the boat and held. A second later it missed them and began a search.
Presently it lit the little boat, and it did something more--it revealed
a thickening of the atmosphere. They were running into a sea fog, one of
those thin white fogs that come down in the Mediterranean on windless
days. The blinding glare of the searchlight blurred.

"_Bang!_"

"That's the gun to signal us to stop," said Marcus between his teeth.

He turned the nose of the boat southward, a hazardous proceeding, for he
ran into clear water, and had only just got back into the shelter of the
providential fog bank when the white beam came stealthily along the edge
of the mist. Presently it died out, and they saw it no more.

"They're looking for us," said Marcus again.

"You said that before," said the girl calmly.

"They've probably warned them at Tangier. We dare not take the boat into
the bay," said Stepney, whose nerves were now on edge.

He turned again westward, edging toward the rocky coast of northern
Africa. They saw little clusters of lights on the shore, and he tried to
remember what towns they were.

"I think that big one is Cutra, the Spanish convict station," he said.

He slowed down the boat, and they felt their way gingerly along the
coast line, until the flick and flash of a lighthouse gave them an idea
of their position.

"Cape Spartel," he identified the light. "We can land very soon. I was
in Morocco for three months, and if I remember rightly the beach is good
walking as far as Tangier."

She went into the cabin and changed, and as the nose of the _Jungle
Queen_ slid gently up the sandy beach she was ready.

He carried her ashore, and set her down, then he pushed off the nose of
the boat, and manoeuvred it so that the stern was against the beach,
resting in three feet of water. He jumped on board, lashed the helm, and
started the engines going, then wading back to the shore he stood
staring into the gloom as the little _Jungle Queen_ put out to sea.

"That's that," he said grimly. "Now my dear, we've got a ten mile walk
before us."

But he had made a slight miscalculation.