Part 52 (1/2)

”Not exactly; it didn't seem worth while. Though there's no doubt you betrayed us--Vane waited for the warning you could have sent--so far as it concerns our ruined interests in the Clermont, the thing's done and can't be mended. We'll let that question go. The most important point is that if you had recalled us, as you promised, Vane would now be safe and sound.”

This shot told. The girl's face became less imperturbable; there was eagerness and, he thought, a hint of fear in it.

”Then has any accident happened to him?”

”He's lying in the bush, helpless, in imminent peril of starvation.”

”Go on!”

There were signs of strain clearly perceptible in the girl's voice.

Carroll was brief, but he made her understand the position; then she turned upon him imperiously.

”Then why are you wasting your time here?”

”It's a reasonable question. I can't get a tug to take me back until noon to-morrow.”

”Ah!” murmured Jessy. ”Excuse me for a minute.”

She left him astonished. He had not expected her to take him at a disadvantage, as she had done with her previous thrust, and now he did not think that she had slipped away to hide her feelings. That did not seem necessary in Jessy's case, though he believed she was more or less disturbed. She came back presently, looking calm, and sat down again.

”My brother will be here in a quarter of an hour,” she informed him.

”Things are rather slack, and he had half promised to take me for a drive. I have just called him up.”

Carroll did not see how this bore upon the subject of their conversation, but he left her to take the lead.

”Did Mr. Vane tell you that I had promised to warn him?” she asked.

”To do him justice, he let it out before he quite realized what he was saying. I'd better own that I partly surprised him into giving me the information.”

”The expedient seems a favorite one with you. I suppose no news of what has happened here can have reached him?”

”None. If it's any consolation, he has still an unshaken confidence in you,” Carroll a.s.sured her with blunt bitterness.

The girl showed faint signs of confusion, but she sat silent for the next few moments. During that time it flashed upon Carroll with illuminating light that he had heard Celia Hartley say that Miss Horsfield had found her orders for millinery. This confirmed his previous suspicion that Jessy had discovered who had paid the rent of Celia's shack, and that she had with deliberate malice informed Evelyn, distorting her account so that it would tell against Vane. There were breaks in the chain of reasoning which led him to this conclusion, but he did not think that Jessy would shrink from such a course, and he determined to try a chance shot.

”Vane's inclined to be trustful, and his rash generosity has once or twice got him into trouble,” he remarked, and went on as if an explanation were needed: ”It's Miss Hartley's case I'm thinking about just now. I've an idea he asked you to look after her. Am I right?”

As soon as he had spoken he knew that he had hit the mark. Jessy did not openly betray herself, but there are not many people who can remain absolutely unmoved when unexpectedly asked a startling question. Besides, the man was observant, and had all his faculties strung up for the encounter. He saw one of her hands tighten on the arm of her chair and a hint of uneasiness in her eyes, and that sufficed him.

”Yes,” she replied; ”I recommended her to some of my friends. I understand that she is getting along satisfactorily.”

Carroll felt compelled to admire her manner. He believed that she loved his comrade but had nevertheless tried to ruin him in a fit of jealous rage. She was, no doubt, now keenly regretting her success, but though he thought she deserved to suffer, she was bravely facing the trying situation. It was one that was rife with dramatic possibilities, and he was grateful to her for avoiding them.

”You are going back to-morrow,” she said after a brief silence. ”I suppose you will have to tell your partner--what you have discovered here--as soon as you reach him?”

Carroll had not intended to spare her, but now he felt almost compa.s.sionate, and he had one grain of comfort to offer.

”I must tell him that his shares in the Clermont have been sacrificed. I wonder if that is all you meant?”

Jessy met his inquiring gaze with something very much like an appeal, and then she spread out her hands in a manner that seemed to indicate that she threw herself upon his mercy.