Pool has followed her, like her shadow, and Jane Pool's face, peers
cautiously out from the half-open door.

In that one instant while she waits, she misses her prey--she emerges,
but in the darkness nothing is to be seen or heard.

As she stands irresolute, she suddenly hears a low, distinct whistle
to the left. It may be the call of a night-bird--it may be a signal.

She glides to the left, straining her eyes through the gloom. It is
many minutes before she can see anything, except the vaguely waving
trees--then a fiery spark, a red eye glows through the night. She has
run her prey to earth--it is the lighted tip of a cigar.

She draws near--her heart throbs. Dimly she sees the tall figure of a
man; close to him the slender, slighter figure of a woman. They are
talking in whispers, and she is mortally afraid of coming too close.
What is to keep them from murdering her too?

"I tell you, you _must_ go, and at once," are the first words, she
hears Inez Catheron speaking, in a passionate, intense whisper. "I
tell you I am suspected already; do you think _you_ can escape much
longer? If you have any feeling for yourself, for me, go, go, I
beseech you, at once! They are searching for you now, I warn you, and
if they find you--"

"If they find me," the man retorts, doggedly, "it can't be much worse
than it is. Things have been so black with me for years, that they
can't be much blacker. But I'll go. I'm not over anxious to stay, Lord
knows. Give me the money and I'll be off."