He strode on between the animals, the rifle in the crook of his arm, ready for use, and all his senses alert and vivacious. Day was broad above them now and bitter with the forenoon heat. At their side the bay was rippled with a capricious breeze, and in all the far prospect of earth and sea none moved save themselves, detached in a haunting significance of solitude. "Ah!" He stopped short and jerked the rifle forward. In the bush ahead there was a movement; for an instant he saw something white flash among the palms, and then the Italian burst forth and came toward them, running all at large, with head down and jolting elbows. He ran like a man hunted by crazy fears, and did not see Scott till he was within twenty yards. "Halt, there, Dago," ordered Scott, and brought the butt to his shoulder. The Italian gasped and blundered to his knees, turning on Scott a glazed and twitching face. "For peety, for peety!" he quavered. "Draw that shawl over your face, 'Carnacion," said Scott, without turning his head. "Can you see now?" "No," she answered. He fired, and the Italian sprawled forward on his face, plowing up the sand with clutching hands. "Keep the shawl over your eyes, 'Carnacion," directed Scott, and soon they came round a palm-bunch and were on the bank of the creek, where a fifteen-ton cutter lay on the mud. A plank lay between her deck and the shore, and, as they came to it, the captain hailed them from the cockpit. "Come aboard," he said. "All's ready." Scott picked Incarnacion up in his arms, wound another fold of the shawl about her face, and carried her aboard. He set her down on the settee in the cabin, released her head, and kissed her fervently. "Now make yourself comfy here, little 'un," he said; "for here you stay till we make Delagoa." He helped her to dispose herself in the cabin, showed her its arrangements, and saw her curious delight in the little space-saving contrivances. Then he went out, closing the door behind him. It did not occur to him to render her any explanations; what Scott did was always sufficient for Incarnacion. Again on deck, he found the swathed leper busy, and started when he saw, along the banks of the creek, a gang of shrouded figures at work with a hawser. "My crew," said the captain. "They're to haul us off the mud." "Then," said Scott, "it was them----" The leper laughed. "Ay, they ran from us," he said. "They ran from the lazaretto-hands. The one we caught, we put him overside for the crocodiles; an' you got the other." "They chased him?" asked Scott, trembling with the thought. "Ay," said the leper; "they uncovered their faces and they chased. Ye heard the squealing?"