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 can—half an hour at least—and then go to bed yourself.”

“Very well, your Grace; I don’t like it, but I’ll do it.”

“And see here, Mayne: there’s one thing more. In the morning, or whenever Colonel Walcot discovers that I have gone away, teil him from me why I went, and that I intend to repay him all I owe him. All I owe him, don’t forget that.”

Directly he was alone Beaumanoir left himself no time for weighing the chances, but took the risk. Squeezing through the window, he climbed down the sloping roof of the woodshed and thence by way of the faggot-pile to the ground. He was well aware that every step, as he groped his way across the clearing into the thicket, might be his last, for doubtless he had been traced to the cottage and the whole pack were somewhere about. His only hope lay in the probability that they were in front of the house, where they could hold themselves ready to obey signals from the kitchen window or a summons from the door.

It might have been that this was the case, for Beaumanoir reached the trees without interference, and at once shaped a course for the