Part 45 (1/2)
The answer was to the effect she had antic.i.p.ated.
”That's impossible, for several reasons.”
”The other is to call at Nanaimo and wait until, we'll say, next Thursday. If there's need for you to come back I think it will arise by then; but it might be better if you called at Comox too--after you leave the latter you'll be unreachable. If it seems necessary, I'll send you a warning; if you hear nothing, you can go on.”
Vane reflected hastily. Jessy, as she had told him, had opportunities for picking up valuable information about the business done in that city, and he had confidence in her.
”Thank you,” he said. ”It will be the second service you have done me, and I appreciate it. Anyway, I promised Nairn I'd call at Nanaimo, in case there should be a wire from him.”
”It's a bargain; and now we'll talk of something else.”
Jessy drew him into an exchange of badinage. Noticing, however, that Evelyn once or twice glanced at her with some astonishment, she presently got rid of him. She could understand Evelyn's att.i.tude and she did not wish her friendliness with the offender to appear unnatural after what she had said about him.
At length the guests began to leave, and most of them had gone when Vane rose to take his departure. His host and hostess went with him to the door, but, though he once or twice glanced round eagerly, there was no sign of Evelyn. He lingered a few moments on the threshold after Mrs.
Nairn had given him a kindly send-off; but n.o.body appeared in the lighted hall, and after another word with Nairn he went moodily down the steps to join Jessy and Carroll, who were waiting for him below. As the group walked down the garden path, Mrs. Nairn looked at her husband.
”I do not know what has come over Evelyn this night,” she remarked.
Nairn followed Jessy's retreating figure with distrustful eyes.
”Weel,” he drawled, ”I'm thinking yon besom may have had a hand in the thing.”
A few minutes later Jessy, standing where the light of a big lamp streamed down upon her through the boughs of a leafless maple, bade Vane farewell at her brother's gate.
”If my good wishes can bring you success, it will most certainly be yours,” she said, and there was something in her voice which faintly stirred the man, who was feeling very sore.
”Thank you.”
She did not immediately withdraw the hand she had given him. He was grateful to her and thought she looked unusually pretty with the sympathy s.h.i.+ning in her eyes.
”You will not forget to wait at Nanaimo and Comox?” she reminded him.
”No. If you recall me, I'll come back at once; if not, I'll go on with a lighter heart, knowing that I can safely stay away.”
Jessy said nothing further, and he moved on. She felt that she had scored and she knew when to stop. The man had given her his full confidence.
Soon afterward Vane entered his hotel, where he turned impatiently upon Carroll.
”You can go into the rotunda or the smoking-room and talk to any loafer who thinks it worth while to listen to your cryptic remarks,” he said.
”As we sail as soon as it's daylight to-morrow, I'm going to sleep.”
CHAPTER XXV
THE INTERCEPTED LETTER
The wind was fresh from the northwest when Vane drove the sloop out through the Narrows in the early dawn and saw a dim stretch of white-flecked sea in front of him. Land-locked as they are by Vancouver Island, the long roll of the Pacific cannot enter those waters, but they are now and then lashed into short, tumbling seas, sufficient to make pa.s.sage difficult for a craft no larger than the sloop. Carroll frowned when a comber smote the weather bow and a shower of stinging spray lashed his face.