"Look here," said the captain, "this is contrary to all precedent. I recollect when I fought the major of the Twenty-seventh, and left him for dead, we sent a coach after him and a doctor." "All right," responded Harvey, "we will do that for you." He departed hastily with Harkaway, and the captain dragged the insensible body of Maltravers to a spot further inland, where the rapidly advancing waves could not touch it. For the next hour he busied himself in stanching the blood, which indeed was the only way of saving the defeated man's life. At the expiration of that time he perceived a carriage driving furiously along the sand. When it reached the spot where the captain was standing a gentleman stepped out. "I am the doctor," he said. Captain Cannon nodded, and after a brief examination the medical man ordered Maltravers to be driven to the hotel. For some hours he hovered between life and death. The captain remained in constant attendance by the bedside, until a severe attack of fever supervened, when a professional nurse was hired. On the third day the crisis came. It was midnight when the doctor left the sick man's room and sought the captain. "Has this gentleman any friends?" he inquired. "Yes, in England," was the reply. "It will be best to send for them without delay." "Is the case so grave as that?" "I cannot answer for the result," replied the doctor. Captain Cannon at once telegraphed to Lady Maltravers, the mother of the sick man. That night the patient was very feverish and restless; he recognized no one. In the afternoon of the following day Lady Maltravers arrived at the hotel accompanied by Bambino, his lordship's Italian servant. This fellow had a most villainous countenance and it was said that he had been condemned to the galleys for a term of years, in expiation of some terrible crime. "My son! Where is my son?" demanded Lady Maltravers. She was conducted to his room and from that time forth watched over him with all a mother's devotion. CHAPTER III. THE ASSASSIN AT WORK. Thanks to his youth, aided, by a strong and vigorous constitution, Lord Maltravers passed through the valley of the shadow of death without succumbing to the fell destroyer. In a fortnight he was out of danger. The doctor predicted that his recovery would be slow, and advised that he should remain where he was until his strength was fully established. Lady Maltravers returned to London, rejoicing that her child was saved to her, for with all his faults she loved him with the strong intensity of a fond and over-indulgent mother. Consequently his lordship remained at Calais in the charge of his faithful valet, Bambino. One day, while sitting up for the first time, his pale and haggard face brought into prominence by the rays of the sun which streamed in through the open window, he received a letter from Simpkins, to whom he had written for news.