Part 10 (2/2)

”She's lying submerged.”

”And Miss Vladimir is--aboard?”

”The lady is, sir,” replied the man, with a shadow of a smile in his deep-set blue eyes.

The stranger stood aside, a direct invitation to Ruxton to climb down into the boat. But the latter made no move to do so.

Then the man pushed his peaked cap back from his forehead and displayed a shock of sandy grey hair which matched his closely trimmed whiskers.

”You'll excuse me, sir,” he said, a trifle urgently, ”but we've got to get out smart. Once the tide turns it races in here like an avalanche.

We'll never make h.e.l.l's Gates if we aren't smart, and we don't want to get caught up in h.e.l.l itself.”

The man's urgency had the desired effect. Ruxton stooped down and lowered himself into the bow of the boat.

”That's right, sir, it'll trim the boat,” the man approved, as he dropped lightly in amids.h.i.+ps. In a moment the clutch was let in and the little craft backed out of its narrow harbor.

It was a moment of crisis. Ruxton Farlow had practically committed himself to the power of these strangers. Not quite though. For he had taken the bow seat, and his loaded automatic was in his pocket still.

However, the position was not without considerable risk. He had expected to meet Vita. Instead he had been met by two men in uniform.

They were both in middle life, and burly specimens of the seafaring profession.

He had calculated the chances carefully before taking his final decision. Moreover he had closely appraised the men in charge of the boat. They were British. Of that he was certain. Nor were they men without education. On the whole he did not see that the balance lay very much in their favor if any treachery were contemplated.

”You are British,” he said to the man in front of him, as the boat swung round head on to the gates of the cove and began to gather speed.

”Yes, sir. Served my time in the Navy--and had a billet elsewhere ever since.”

”Since the war?”

”No, sir. Before the war.”

”Where?”

The man faced round with a smile, while his comrade drove the little boat at a headlong pace through the racing waters.

”Where a good many of our Navy's cast-offs go, sir. In Germany.”

CHAPTER VII

ON THE GREY NORTH SEA

Brief as was the interval between leaving the treacherous cove and the moment when Ruxton Farlow found himself surrounded by the tasteful luxury of the saloon of the long, low, strange-looking craft waiting just outside to receive him, it was not without many thrilling experiences.

To a man of less imagination the very few minutes in the petrol launch would have meant little more than a rather exciting experience. But for Ruxton they possessed a far deeper significance. Nor was the least the feeling that he had slammed-to the doors of the life behind him, bolted and barred and locked them, and--flung away the key.

That was the man. Sensitive to every mood that a.s.sailed him, yet urged on by an indomitable purpose, he had no more power to raise a hand to stay the tide of life upon which he was floating than he had to check the racing current which bore him beyond the threatening shoals of the Old Mill Cove.

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