The Story Continued by Marian Halcombe

I closed the door again. “Oh, Laura! 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 boathouse 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 boathouse. 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 boathouse. Go on⁠—go on!”