down with his heel.

Toussac seized the wood-axe which leaned against the wall. The thin man
dragged the pile of decayed netting from the corner, and opened a small
wooden screen, which shut off a low recess.

'In here,' he whispered, 'quick!'

And then, as I scrambled into my refuge, I heard him say to the others
that I would be safe there, and that they could lay their hands upon me
when they wished.

CHAPTER V

THE LAW

The cupboard--for it was little more--into which I had been hurried was
low and narrow, and I felt in the darkness that it was heaped with
peculiar round wickerwork baskets, the nature of which I could by no
means imagine, although I discovered afterwards that they were lobster
traps. The only light which entered was through the cracks of the old
broken door, but these were so wide and numerous that I could see the
whole of the room which I had just quitted. Sick and faint, with the
shadow of death still clouding my wits, I was none the less fascinated
by the scene which lay before me.

My thin friend, with the same prim composure upon his emaciated face,
had seated himself again upon the box. With his hands clasped round one
of his knees he was rocking slowly backwards and forwards; and I
noticed, in the lamplight, that his jaw muscles were contracting
rhythmically, like the gills of a fish. Beside him stood Lesage, his
white face glistening with moisture and his loose lip quivering with
fear. Every now and then he would make a vigorous attempt to compose
his features, but after each rally a fresh wave of terror would sweep
everything before it, and set him shaking once more. As to Toussac, he
stood before the fire, a magnificent figure, with the axe held down by
his leg, and his head thrown back in defiance, so that his great black
beard bristled straight out in front of him. He said not a word, but
every fibre of his body was braced for a struggle. Then, as the howl of
the hound rose louder and clearer from the marsh outside, he ran forward
and threw open the door.

'No, no, keep the dog out!' cried Lesage in an agony of apprehension.

'You fool, our only chance is to kill it.'

'But it is in leash.'

'If it is in leash nothing can save us. But if, as I think, it is
running free, then we may escape yet.'

Lesage cowered up against the table, with his agonised eyes fixed upon
the blue-black square of the door. The man who had befriended me still
swayed his body abou