she as before in brown, but in a well-cut coat and skirt and a smart
toque and motoring veil. Both were carrying dust coats. Mr. Coburn
drew the door to, and they walked towards the mill and were lost to
sight behind it. Some minutes passed, and between the screaming of
the saws the sound of a motor engine became audible. After a further
delay a Ford car came out from behind the shed and moved slowly over
the uneven sward towards the lane. In the car were Mr. and Miss
Coburn and a chauffeur.

Hilliard had been following every motion through his glass, and he
now thrust the instrument into his companion's hand, crying softly:

"Look, Merriman. Is that the lorry driver you saw?" Merriman
focused the glass on the chauffeur and recognized him instantly.
It was the same dark, aquiline-featured man who had stared at him
so resentfully on the occasion of his first visit to the mill,
some two months earlier.

"By Jove, what an extraordinary stroke of luck!" Hilliard went on
eagerly. "All three of them that know you out of the way! We can
go down to the place now and ask for Mr. Coburn, and maybe we shall
have a chance to see inside that shed. Let's go at once, before
they come back."

They crawled away from their point of vantage into the wood, and
retracing their steps to the boat, put it together and carried it
to the river. Then rowing up-stream, they reached the end of the
wharf, where a flight of wooden steps came down into the stream.
Here they went ashore, after making the painter fast to the woodwork.