A laugh arose from the men; it sounded to him as strange a sound, for the time and place, as the almost human cry of the horse a few minutes before.

Then O'Shea came towards him with menacing gestures.

The two men went back into the gap of the sand-hills from whence they must have come.
"Look here," said O'Shea roughly, "do ye value your life ?" "Certainly." Caius folded his arms, and made this answer with well-bred contempt.
"And ye shall have your life, but on one condition.

Take out of your bags what's needed for dealing with the sick this noight, for there's a dying man ye must visit before ye sleep, and the condition is that ye walk on to The Cloud by yourself on this beach without once looking behoind ye.

Moind what I say! Ye shall go free--yerself, yer money, and yer midicines--if ye walk from here to the second house that is a loighthouse without once turning yer head or looking behoind ye." He pointed to the bags with a gesture of rude authority.