"And I want to think a little by myself,"
replied the other. " Wait till later, Percival— wait
till later."

Neither he nor his friend said any more. I
gained the top of the stairs, and ran along the
passage. In my haste and my agitation, I left
the door of the ante-chamber open— but I closed
the door of the bedroom the moment I was
inside it.

Laura was sitting alone at the far end of the
room; her arms resting wearily on a table, and
her face hidden in her hands. She started up,
with a cry of delight, when she saw me.

"How did you get here?" she asked. " Who
gave you leave? Not Sir Percival?"

In my overpowering anxiety to hear what
she had to tell me, I could not answer her — I
could only put questions, on my side. Laura's
eagerness to know what had passed down stairs
proved, however, too strong to be resisted. She
persistently repeated her inquiries.

"The Count, of course?" I answered,
impatiently. " Whose influence in the house—?"

She stopped me, with a gesture of disgiist.
"Don't speak of him," she cried. " The
Count is the vilest creature breathing! The Count is a miserable Spy—!"

Before we could either of us say another word,
we were alarmed by a soft knocking at the door
of the bedroom.

I had not yet sat down; and I went first to
see who it was. When I opened the door,
Madame Fosco confronted me, with my
handkerchief in her hand.

"You dropped this down stairs, Miss Halcombe,"
she said; " and I thought I could bring
it to you, as I was passing by to my own room."

Her face, naturally pale, had turned to such
a ghastly whiteness, that I started at the sight
of it. Her hands, so sure and steady at all
other times, trembled violently; and her eyes
looked wolfishly past me through the open door,
and fixed on Laura.

She had been listening before she knocked!
I saw it in her white face; I saw it in her
trembling hands; I saw it in her look at Laura.

After waiting an instant, she turned from me
in silence, and slowly walked away.

I closed the door again. " Oh, Laura! Laura!
We shall both rue the day when you spoke those
words!"

"You would have spoken them yourself,
Marian, if you had known what I know. Anne
Catherick was right. There was a third person
watching us in the plantation, yesterday; and
that third person—"

"Are you sure it was the Count?"

"I am absolutely certain. He was Sir Percival's
spy— he was Sir Percival's informer— he
set Sir Percival watching and waiting, all the
morning through, for Anne Catherick and for
me."

"Is Anne found? Did you see her at the
lake?"

"No. She has saved herself by keeping away
from the place. When I got to the boat-house,
no one was there."

"Yes? yes?"

"I went in, and sat waiting for a few minutes.
But my restlessness made me get up again, to
walk about a little. As I passed out, I saw
some marks on the sand, close under the front
of the boat-house. I stooped down to examine
them, and discovered a word written in large
letters, on the sand. The word was— LOOK."

"And you scraped away the sand, and dug a
hollow place in it?"

"How do you know that, Marian?"

"I saw the hollow-place myself, when I
followed you to the boat-house. Go on— go on!"

"Yes; I scraped away the sand on the surface;
and in a little while, I came to a strip of paper
hidden beneath, which had writing on it. The
writing was signed with Anne Catherick's
initials."

"Where is it?"

"Sir Percival has taken it from me."

"Can you remember what the writing was?
Do you think you can repeat it to me."

"In substance I can, Marian. It was very
short. You would have remembered it, word
for word."

"Try to tell me what the substance was,
before we go any further."

She complied. I write the lines down here,
exactly as she repeated them to me. They ran
thus:

"I was seen with you, yesterday, by a tall
stout old man, and had to run to save myself.
He was not quick enough on his feet to follow
me, and he lost me among the trees. I dare
not risk coming back here to-day, at the same
time. I write this, and hide it in the sand, at
six in the morning, to tell you so. When we
speak next of your wicked husband's Secret we
must speak safely, or not at all. Try to have
patience. I promise you shall see me again;
and that soon.— A. C."

The reference to the " tall stout old man"
(the terms of which Laura was certain that
she had repeated to me correctly), left no
doubt as to who the intruder had been. I
called to mind that I had told Sir Percival, in
the Count's presence, the day before, that Laura
had gone to the boat-house to look for her
brooch. In all probability he had followed
her there, in his officious way, to relieve her
mind about the matter of the signature,
immediately after he had mentioned the change in
Sir Percival's plans to me in the drawing-room.
In this case, he could only have got to the
neighbourhood of the boat-house, at the very
moment when Anne Catherick discovered him.
The suspiciously hurried manner in which she
parted from Laura, had no doubt prompted his
useless attempt to follow her. Of the conversation
which had previously taken place between
them, he could have heard nothing. The distance
between the house and the lake, and the
time at which he left me in the drawing-room,
as compared with the time at which Laura and
Anne Catherick had been speaking together,