I closed the door again. `Oh, Laura I Laura! We shall both rue the day when you called the Count a Spy!'
`You would have called him so yourself, Marian, if you had known what I know. Anne Catherick was right. There was a third person watching us in the plantation yesterday, and that third person --
`Are you sure it was the Count?'
`I am absolutely certain. He was Sir Percival's spy -- he was Sir Percival's informer -- he set Sir Percival watching and waiting, all the morning through, for Anne Catherick and for me.'
`Is Anne found? Did you see her at the lake?'
`No. She has saved herself by keeping away from the place. When I got to the boat-house no one was there.'
`Yes? Yes?'
`I went in and sat waiting for a few minutes. But my restlessness made me get up again, to walk about a little. As I passed out I saw some marks on the sand, close under the front of the boat-house. I stooped down to examine them, and discovered a word written in large letters on the sand. The word was -- LOOK.'
`And you scraped away the sand, and dug a hollow place in it?'
`How do you know that, Marian?'
`I saw the hollow place myself when I followed you to the boat-house. Go on -- go on!'
`Yes, I scraped away the sand on the surface, and in a little while I came to a strip of paper hidden beneath, which had writing on it. The writing was signed with Anne Catherick's initials.'
`Where is it?'
`Sir Percival has taken it from me.'
`Can you remember what the writing was? Do you think you can repeat it to me?'
`In substance I can, Marian. It was very short. You would have remembered it. word for word.'
`Try to tell me what the substance was before we go any further.'
She complied. I write the lines down here exactly as she repeated them to me. They ran thus -- and had to run to save myself. He was not quick enough on his feet to follow me, and he lost me among the trees. I dare not risk coming back here today at the same time. I write this, and hide it in the sand, at six in the morning, to tell you so. When we speak next of your wicked husband's Secret we must speak safely, or not at all. Try to have patience. I promise you shall see me again and that soon. -- A. C.'
The reference to the `tall, stout old man' (the terms of which Laura was certain that she had repeated to me correctly) left no doubt as to who the intruder had been. I called to mind that I had told Sir Percival, in the Count's presence the day before, that Laura had gone to the boat-house to look for her brooch. In all probability he had followed her there, in his officious way, to relieve her mind about the matter of the signature, immediately after he had mentioned the change in Sir Percival's plans to me in the drawing- room. In this case he could only have got to the neighbourhood of the boat-house at the very moment when Anne Catherick discovered him. The suspiciously hurried manner in which she parted from Laura had no doubt prompted his useless attempt to follow her. Of the conversation which had previously