Also there arrived a number of soldiers under a smart sergeant, and to him Sir Frank explained what had happened.

In the fainthearted way--for the mist was now like cotton-wool--the military and the civilians hunted through the marshes round the cottage, hoping to come across the assassin hiding in a ditch.

Needless to say, they found no one and nothing, for it was worse than looking for a needle in a bundle of hay.

The man had come out of the mist, and, after executing the deed, had vanished into the mist, and there was not the very slightest chance of finding him.

Gradually, as it drew towards midnight, the soldiers went back to the Fort, and the villagers to their homes.