eet odours, weak upon his feet, but strong in
his mind.

When Pepe would have sidled away, Melchardo bade him keep close. Driven
desperate by his enemies, he must trust what friend was at hand. "Stand
by lest I need thee," he had said. "For very soon there will be hell to
pay, if I act not now and with vigour."

So Pepe el Lagarto sunned himself in the window, and listened. And he
heard Melchardo put the whole cuadrilla de morfinistas under orders to
draw a net around the man who had fled with the precious powder of the
new drug and the girl who knew too much.

"For I tell you, Senor Dicco," he said, "that it is the web of a spider.
He is the great Arana that sits in the midst, to run out and to seize
and to devour. It began in the Millsborough and Lowport sleeping-houses
of the slant-eyed men of the sea, and spreads every day wider and wider
its meshes and stays. Some day the web will cover the great towns and
countries of the world, unless----"

"Unless a great Ticodromo come, Pepe. Tell thy tale quickly," said Dick.

Five parties had Melchard sent out from Millsborough; two cars, as if
going to the fair and cricket match at Ecclesthorpe, or the races at
Timsdale-Horton, each with four men; and three motor-cycles with
sidecars, two men apiece. And their five bases, as Pepe showed upon the
table with bread-crumbs, were set at Gallowstree Dip, in the hollow
half-way between "The Goat in Boots" and Ecclesthorpe; again, hard by
the railway-junction of Harthborough; thirdly, at the joining of the
Ecclesthorpe parish-road with the highway to London; fourthly, between
this and Millsborough, at "The Coach and Horses" Inn; and fifth, by
Margetstowe village, where the woodland track from Monkswood Cottage
runs into the seaward road over against "The Goat in Boots."

"And so, you are caught," said Pepe, "in a cage, with horse road and
rail road beyond the bars."

"And you heard all this, in the talk which Melchard made with his
teniente through the telephone?" asked Dick.

"All this," replied Pepe, "is what I tell you, from what I hear, from
what I know, and from what I have seen."

"Pepe, I have an automobile of great speed. It is over there at 'The
Coach and Horses.' You must take us across the moor, I will creep in and
get the car, while you keep the lady hidden. I will drive out, and----"

"It is too late, Dicco. For while Melchardo talked and made commands,
there was a sound from above of the breaking of wood and