Part 51 (1/2)

dickie Lang grasped her rifle tighter and leaned over the rail as she heard the soft dip of oars Then her hold on the gun relaxed Perhaps it was Gregory returning to the launch

A glance into the gloom to starboard caused her to drop silently into the cockpit Resting the rifle on the coa boat and waited in silence To her ears ca craft veered sharply and faded froirl crouched upon the floor of the launch At length the silence of the night was broken by the far-off pulsing of a high-speedwith excitement Even at the distance she could not be deceived There was only one other craft about with an exhaust like that

Mascola was fleeing fro to the hood and began pulling on the anchor-chain Then she stopped suddenly The man she loved was still on the island Perhaps he had been wounded Maybe killed And in theFor an instant love and hate fought for possession of the heart of dickie Lang Then the chain slipped through her fingers and the anchor dropped again to the bottom Silently she returned to the wheel and sat down to wait It was the hardest part of all to play And it always fell to a woory reached the end of the tunnel he could hear the shouts of e of firear the goose-neck Crawling rapidly through the brush he gained the beach Then he stopped and listened Mascola had evidently taken to the water

A sudden fear gripped his heart at the thought and sent hi down the beach in the direction of the _Richard's_ dory His fears for the girl's safety abated as he found the dory undisturbed a it into the water he rowed hastily for the launch As the skiff scraped the _Richard's_ side, he sprang aboard and caught the girl in his arms For an instant love alone dominated his heart

”Mascola escaped in the _Fuor d'Italia_”

dickie's words recalled Gregory to his purpose The next instant he was pulling at the chain

”I'll take you around the point to the cutter,” he called to her as he worked ”You'll be safe there until----”

”No” The girl's ansas spoken with a deter with you,” she said in a low voice ”There were two men in the launch”

CHAPTER xxxI

BENEATH THE WATERS

As the _Richard_ cleared the point and plunged into trough of the swell, a thin colu astern and traveled slowly over the gray water

Gregory put the wheel over and began to zigzag as he reoose-neck At the distance the revenue cutter would be unable to distinguish friend from foe and would take no chances

”Stay down,” he called to dickie ”It's the search frohtthe rocks which fringed the coast Gregory threw the wheel in the opposite direction and struck out at a tangent toward the sea His speed would soon carry hi open the cut-out, he advanced the throttle The _Richard_ shook with the sudden burst of power, then began to plane

Gregory kept his eyes on the ht was

The cutter evidently had not e Doubtless she would be kept fully occupied at the goose-neck The next instant the fog-wall ahead dripped in the rays of the searchlight

Gregory's hand flashed to the spark as his foot released the throttle

The angry roar of the speed-boat died away on the instant and the hull dropped sullenly Putting about, he started shoreward at right angles to his forun bullets sounded over his head to the starboard

Then the leaden hail was drowned by the bark of the open exhaust