I heard, at first far away
towards the land, then gradually coming nearer, the light, slow
plashing of oars that gently and leisurely rose and fell.

This, of course, was the Frenchman, coming back from his mission to
Berwick--he would, I knew, have gone there from the little wayside
station that lay beyond the woods at the back of the cove and have
returned by a late train to the same place. Somehow--I could not well
account for it--the mere fact of his coming back made me nervous and
uneasy. I was not so certain about his innocence in the matter of
Salter Quick's murder. On Baxter's own showing the Frenchman had been
hanging about that coast for some little time, just when Salter Quick
descended upon it. He, like Baxter, if Baxter's story were true, was
aware that one or other of the Quicks carried those valuable rubies;
even if, the York episode being taken for granted, he had not killed
Salter Quick himself he might be privy to the doings of some
accomplice who had. Anyway, he was a doubtful quantity, and the mere
fact that he was back again on that yawl made me more resolved than
ever to keep awake and preserve a sharp look-out.

I heard the boat come alongside; I heard steps on the deck just
outside my open door; then, Baxter's voice. Presently, too, I heard
other voices--one that of the Frenchman, which I recognised from
having heard him speak in the afternoon; the other a soft, gentle,
laughing voice--without doubt that of an Eastern. This, of course,
would be the Chinese gentleman of whom I had heard--the man who had
been seen in company with Baxter and the Frenchman at Hull. So now the
three principal actors in this affair were all gathered together,
separated from me and Miss Raven by a few planks, and close by were
three Chinese of whose qualities I knew nothing. Safe we might be--but
we were certainly on the very edge of a hornet's nest.

I heard the three men talking together in low, subdued tones for a few
minutes; then they went along the deck above me and the sound of their
steps ceased. But as I lay there in the darkness, two round discs of
light suddenly appeared on a mirror which hung on the boarding of the
cabin, immediately facing me, and turning my head sharply, I saw that
in the bulkhead behind me there were two similar holes, pierced in
what was probably a door, which would, no doubt, be sunk flush with
the boarding and was possibly the entrance to some other cabin that
could be entered from