ce of ultimate success. Providence had directly interfered on
his behalf by the hand of Wee Jaikie, and that surely meant that it
would see him through. But his chief emotion was an ardour of
impatience to get to the scene of action. He must be at Dalquharter
before the men from the sea; he must find Dougal and discover his
dispositions. Heritage would be on guard in the Tower, and in a very
little the enemy would be round it. It would be just like the Princess
to try and enter there, but at all costs that must be hindered. She
and Sir Archie must not be cornered in stone walls, but must keep their
communications open and fall on the enemy's flank. Oh, if the police
would only come it time, what a rounding up of miscreants that day
would see!

As the trees thinned on the brow of the slope and he saw the sky, he
realized that the afternoon was far advanced. It must be well on for
five o'clock. The wind still blew furiously, and the oaks on the
fringes of the wood were whipped like saplings. Ruefully he admitted
that the gale would not defeat the enemy. If the brig found a
sheltered anchorage on the south side of the headland beyond the
Garple, it would be easy enough for boats to make the Garple mouth,
though it might be a difficult job to get out again. The thought
quickened his steps, and he came out of cover on to the public road
without a prior reconnaissance. Just in front of him stood a
motor-bicycle. Something had gone wrong with it for its owner was
tinkering at it, on the side farthest from Dickson. A wild hope seized
him that this might be the vanguard of the police, and he went boldly
towards it. The owner, who was kneeling, raised his face at the sound
of footsteps and Dickson looked into his eyes.

He recognized them only too well. They belonged to the man he had seen
in the inn at Kirkmichael, the man whom Heritage had decided to be an
Australian, but whom they now know to be their arch-enemy--the man
called Paul who had persecuted the Princess for years and whom alone of
all beings on earth she feared. He had been expected before, but had
arrived now in the nick of time while the brig was casting anchor.
Saskia had said that he had a devil's brain, and Dickson, as he stared
at him, saw a fiendish cleverness in his straight brows and a
remorseless cruelty in his stiff jaw and his pale eyes.

He achieved the bravest act of his life. Shaky and dizzy as he was,
with freedom newly opened t