er?" he asked suddenly, as if this was the only detail of the past
which had escaped him, fixing his frank eyes upon Randolph.

The young man recounted at some length the dinner party at Dingwall's,
his conversation with Miss Eversleigh, and his interview with Sir
William, but spoke little of Miss Avondale. To his surprise, the captain
listened smilingly, and only said: "That was like Billy to take a rise
out of you by pretending you were suspected. That's his way--a little
rough when you don't know him and he's got a little grog amidships. All
the same, I'd have given something to have heard him 'running' you, when
all the while you had the biggest bulge on him, only neither of you
knew it." He laughed again, until Randolph, amazed at his levity and
indifference, lost his patience.

"Do you know," he said bluntly, "that they don't believe you were
legally married?"

But Captain Dornton only continued to laugh, until, seeing his
companion's horrified face, he became demure. "I suppose Bill didn't,
for Bill had sense enough to know that otherwise he would have to take a
back seat to Bobby."

"But did Miss Avondale know you were legally married, and that your son
was the heir?" asked Randolph bluntly.

"She had no reason to suspect otherwise, although we were married
secretly. She was an old friend of my wife, not particularly of mine."

Randolph sat back amazed and horrified. Those were HER own words. Or was
this man deceiving him as the others had?

But the captain, eying him curiously, but still amusedly, added: "I even
thought of bringing her as one of my witnesses, until"--

"Until what?" asked Randolph quickly, as he saw the captain had
hesitated.

"Until I found she wasn't to be trusted; until I found she was too thick
with Bill," said the captain bluntly. "And now she's gone to England
with him and the boy, I suppose she'll make him come to terms."

"Come to terms?" echoed Randolph. "I don't understand." Yet he had an
instinctive fear that he did.

"Well," said the captain slowly, "suppose she might prefer the chance of
being the wife of a grown-up baronet to being the governess of one who
was only a minor? She's a cute girl," he added dryly.

"But," said Randolph indignantly, "you have other witnesses, I hope."

"Of course I have. I've got the Spanish records now from the Callao
priest, and they're put in a safe place should anything happen to me--if
anything could happen to a dead man!" he added g