the steps approached the door.

Whether by accident or design it happened that Miss Coburn was seated
directly opposite the door, while her two visitors were placed where
they were screened by the door itself from the view of anyone entering.
Hilliard, his eyes on the girl's face as her father came in, intercepted
a glance of what seemed to be warning. His gaze swung round to the
new-comer, and here again he noticed a start of surprise and anxiety as
Mr. Coburn recognized his visitor. But in this case it was so quickly
over that had he not been watching intently he would have missed it.
However, slight though it was, it undoubtedly seemed to confirm the
other indications which pointed to the existence of some secret in the
life of these two, a secret shared apparently by the good-looking driver
and connected in some way with the lorry number plates.

Mr. Coburn was very polite, suave and polished as an accomplished man
of the world. But his manner was not really friendly; in fact, Hilliard
seemed to sense a veiled hostility. A few deft questions put him in
possession of the travelers ostensible plans, which he discussed with
some interest.

"But," he said to Hilliard, "I am afraid you are in error in coming up
this River Lesque. The canal you want to get from here is the Midi, it
enters the Mediterranean not far from Narbonne. But the connection from
this side is from the Garonne. You should have gone up-stream to Langon,
nearly forty miles above Bordeaux."

"We had hoped to go from still farther south," Hilliard answered. "We
have penetrated a good many of the rivers, or rather I have, and we came
up here to see the sand-dunes and forests of the Landes, which are new
to me. A very desolate country, is it not?"

Mr. Coburn agreed, continuing courteously:

"I am glad at all events that your researches have brought you into
our neighborhood. We do not come across many visitors here, and it is
pleasant occasionally to speak one's own language to someone outside
one's household. If you will put up with pot-luck I am sure we should
both be glad--" he looked at his daughter"--if you would wait and take
some dinner with us now. Tomorrow you could explore the woods, which are
really worth seeing though monotonous, and if you are at all interested
I should like to show you our little works. But I warn you the affair
is my hobby, as well as my business for the time being, and I am apt to
assume others have as great an inter