Dalquharter before the men from the sea; he must find Dougal and
discover his dispositions. Heritage would be on guard in the Tower,
and in a very little the enemy would be round it. It would be just
like the Princess to try and enter there, but at all costs that
must be hindered. She and Sir Archie must not be cornered in
stone walls, but must keep their communications open and fall
on the enemy's flank. Oh, if the police would only come it time,
what a rounding up of miscreants that day would see!

As the trees thinned on the brow of the slope and he saw the sky,
he realized that the afternoon was far advanced. It must be well on
for five o'clock. The wind still blew furiously, and the oaks on the
fringes of the wood were whipped like saplings. Ruefully he admitted
that the gale would not defeat the enemy. If the brig found a
sheltered anchorage on the south side of the headland beyond the
Garple, it would be easy enough for boats to make the Garple mouth,
though it might be a difficult job to get out again. The thought
quickened his steps, and he came out of cover on to the public
road without a prior reconnaissance. Just in front of him stood
a motor-bicycle. Something had gone wrong with it for its owner
was tinkering at it, on the side farthest from Dickson. A wild hope
seized him that this might be the vanguard of the police, and he went
boldly towards it. The owner, who was kneeling, raised his face at
the sound of footsteps and Dickson looked into his eyes.

He recognized them only too well. They belonged to the man he had
seen in the inn at Kirkmichael, the man whom Heritage had decided to
be an Australian, but whom they now know to be their arch-enemy--the
man called Paul who had persecuted the Princess for years and whom
alone of all beings on earth she feared. He had been expected before,