ke, the old innkeeper with the blue eyes and white hair
came ambling into the room, and announced that six horses were saddled
outside.

By Ducroix's advice the five others equipped themselves with some
portable form of food and wine, and keeping their duelling swords as the
only weapons available, they clattered away down the steep, white road.
The two servants, who had carried the Marquis's luggage when he was a
marquis, were left behind to drink at the cafe by common consent, and
not at all against their own inclination.

By this time the afternoon sun was slanting westward, and by its rays
Syme could see the sturdy figure of the old innkeeper growing smaller
and smaller, but still standing and looking after them quite silently,
the sunshine in his silver hair. Syme had a fixed, superstitious fancy,
left in his mind by the chance phrase of the Colonel, that this was
indeed, perhaps, the last honest stranger whom he should ever see upon
the earth.

He was still looking at this dwindling figure, which stood as a mere
grey blot touched with a white flame against the great green wall of the
steep down behind him. And as he stared over the top of the down behind
the innkeeper, there appeared an army of black-clad and marching men.
They seemed to hang above the good man and his house like a black cloud
of locusts. The horses had been saddled none too soon.

CHAPTER XII. THE EARTH IN ANARCHY

URGING the horses to a gallop, without respect to the rather rugged
descent of the road, the horsemen soon regained their advantage over the
men on the march, and at last the bulk of the first buildings of Lancy
cut off the sight of their pursuers. Nevertheless, the ride had been
a long one, and by the time they reached the real town the west was
warming with the colour and quality of sunset. The Colonel suggested
that, before making finally for the police station, they should make
the effort, in passing, to attach to themselves one more individual who
might be useful.

"Four out of the five rich men in this town," he said, "are common
swindlers. I suppose the proportion is pretty equal all over the world.
The fifth is a friend of mine, and a very fine fellow; and what is even
more important from our point of view, he owns a motor-car."

"I am afraid," said the Professor in his mirthful way, looking back
along the white road on which the black, crawling patch might appear at
any moment, "I am afraid we have hardly time for