Caius was defenceless, for so peaceful was the country to which he was
accustomed that he carried no weapon. He took his present danger little
to heart. There was a strange buoyancy--born, no doubt, of the bracing
wind--in his spirit. If they were going to kill him--well, he would die
hard; and a man can but die once. A laugh arose from the men; it
sounded to him as strange a sound, for the time and place, as the almost
human cry of the horse a few minutes before. Then O'Shea came towards
him with menacing gestures. The two men went back into the gap of the
sand-hills from whence they must have come.

"Look here," said O'Shea roughly, "do ye value your life?"

"Certainly."

Caius folded his arms, and made this answer with well-bred contempt.

"And ye shall have your life, but on one condition. Take out of your
bags what's needed for dealing with the sick this noight, for there's a
dying man ye must visit before ye sleep, and the condition is that ye
walk on to The Cloud by yourself on this beach without once looking
behoind ye. Moind what I say! Ye shall go free--yerself, yer money, and
yer midicines--if ye walk from here to the second house that is a
loighthouse without once turning yer head or looking behoind ye." He
pointed to the bags with a gesture of rude authority. "Take out what ye
need, and begone!"

"I shall do nothing of the sort," replied Caius, his arms still folded.

The boy had come near enough to hear what was said, but he did not
interfere.

"And why not?" asked O'Shea, a jeer in his tones.

"Because I would not trust one of you not to kill me as soon as my back
was turned."

"And if your back isn't turned, and that pretty quick, too, ye'll not
live many hours."

"I prefer to die looking death in the face; but it'll be hard for the
man who attempts to touch me."

"Oh! ye think ye'll foight for it, do ye?" asked O'Shea lightly; "but
ye're mistaken there--the death ye shall doie will admit of no foighting
on your part."

"There is something more in all this business than I understand." Apart
from the question whether he should die or live, Caius was puzzled to
understand why his enemies had themselves fallen foul of the quicksand,
or what connection the accident could have with the attack upon his
life. "There is more in this than I understand," he repeated loudly.

"Just so," replied O'Shea, imperturbable; "there is more than ye can
understand, and I offer ye a free passage to a safe pl