a man, tied at the hands and heels behind with a hitching-strap,
and with a linen carriage lap-cloth wound around his head and
knotted, lay there endeavoring to ease the rigor of his position
by some movement.

We should now know, in a moment, what desperate thing had
happened!

I cut the strap, while Marquis got the lap-cloth unwound from
about the man's head. It was the driver of the cut-under. But
we got no gain from his discovery. As soon as his face was
clear, he tore out of our grasp and began to run.

He took the old road to the westward of the island, where perhaps
he lived. We were wholly unable to stop him, and we got no reply
to our shouted queries except his wild cry for help. He
considered us his assailants from whom, by chance, he had
escaped. It was folly to think of coming up with the man. He
was set desperately for the westward of the island, and he would
never stop until he reached it.

We turned back into the road:

Marquis' method now changed. He turned swiftly into the road
along the mountain which the cut-under had taken after its
capture.

I was at the extreme of a deadly anxiety about Madame Barras.

It seemed to me, now, certain that some gang of criminals having