"Georgette!" I cried, "help me to find them, and I'll give you fifty francs. No, don't pout. If I can stop them, Susan and Gibson will be grateful to you as long as they live, on my word of honour."
At last Georgette said: "Susan went out too soon for fear that Madame would stop her. She attends Monsieur Geebson at the bottom of the beck at half-past eight."
I snatched a roll from the table and rushed out again to the beach. Bérigny clock struck eight. There would be six or seven minutes to spare.
As I sped along, a sickening fear seized me. What if Ruddington and Susan, by another of the ghastly mishaps which kept dogging us all along, had run into one another on the beach?
No. As I neared the big boat, I saw him standing there alone. He strode out to meet me eagerly and wonderingly.
"Why are you still here?" I asked.
"Where would you have me be?" he said. "I have always loved France. But henceforth, France will mean for me just these few square yards of shadow on the stones."
"You must not brood," I answered. "You talk as if you are never to be happy any more."
"In some other world," he said, smiling sadly, "I mean to be happy with You."
"Some other world?" I said. "Who knows that God may not reward you soon in this?"