‘I heard something,’ he whispered.

‘And I,’ said the older man.

‘What was it?’

‘Silence.  Listen!’

For a minute or more we all stayed with straining ears while the wind still whimpered in the chimney or rattled the crazy window.

‘It was nothing,’ said Lesage at last, with a nervous laugh.  ‘The storm makes curious sounds sometimes.’

‘I heard nothing,’ said Toussac.

‘Hush!’ cried the other.  ‘There it is again!’

A clear rising cry floated high above the wailing of the storm; a wild, musical cry, beginning on a low note, and thrilling swiftly up to a keen, sharp-edged howl.

‘A hound!’

‘They are following us!’

Lesage dashed to the fireplace, and I saw him thrust his papers into the blaze and grind them down with his heel.

Toussac seized the wood-axe which leaned against the wall.  The thin man dragged the pile of decayed netting from the corner, and opened a small wooden screen, which shut off a low recess.

‘In here,’ he whispered, ‘quick!’

And then, as I scrambled into my refuge, I heard him say to the others that I would be safe there, and that they could lay their hands upon me when they wished.

CHAPTER V

THE LAW

The cupboard—­for it was little more—­into which I had been hurried was low and narrow, and I felt in the darkness that it was heaped with peculiar round wickerwork baskets, the nature of which I could by no means imagine, although I discovered afterwards that they were lobster traps.  The only light which entered was through the cracks of the old broken door, but these were so wide and numerous that I could see the whole of the room which I had just quitted.  Sick and faint, with the shadow of death still clouding my wits, I was none the less fascinated by the scene which lay before me.

My thin friend, with the same prim composure upon his emaciated face, had seated himself again upon the box.  With his hands clasped round one of his knees he was rocking slowly backwards and forwards; and I noticed, in the lamplight, that his jaw muscles were contracting rhythmically, like the gills of a fish.  Beside him stood Lesage, his white face glistening with moisture and his loose lip quivering with fear.  Every now and then he would make a vigorous attempt to compose his features, but after each rally a fresh wave of terror would sweep everything before it, and set him shaking once more.  As to Toussac, he stood before the fire, a magnificent figure, with the axe held down by his leg, and his head thrown back in defiance, so that his great black beard bristled straight out in front of him.  He said not a word, but every fibre of his body was braced for a struggle.  Then, as the howl of the hound rose louder and clearer from the marsh outside, he ran forward and threw open the door.