"Come along, then."

The three villains then walked off in the direction of the thicket
where they were to hide.

A minute afterwards a shadow rose from the ditch where he had been
crouching, and stood looking after them long after they had been lost
in the gloom.

"Just in time," muttered the so-called shadow, who was in good truth as
substantial flesh and blood as any in Greece.

"If I had not wandered hither in search of my daughter, probably half-
a-dozen murders would have been committed. However, I'll thwart the
rascals, as sure as my name is Petrus."

For Petrus it was, from Magic Island, who had been playing spy on the
movements of the three conspirators.

He stood there in deep thought for a few minutes.

"I must warn some of the people in the hotel, but I should like to get
this business over without alarming Mrs. Harkaway or the other lady.
The question is, how?"

He reached the front door of the hotel, and pulled at the bell handle.

After an interval of two or three minutes, a light shone through the
keyhole, and a voice asked--