ich
could not be translated into human words. Rayburn had looked death in
the face many a time and laughed at it, but he didn't laugh now. As he
said afterwards, he would have given anything to be a couple of miles
away from Vane just then. He didn't speak because he had nothing to say,
his thoughts would not be translated into language, and so there was
nothing for it but to wait for Vane to speak.

For a few moments more the two men faced each other in silence, yet each
reading the other's thoughts as accurately as though they had been
talking with perfect frankness. Then Vane spoke in a slow, hard, grating
voice which none of the congregation of St. Chrysostom would have
recognised as that of the eloquent preacher of the Sermon on the Mount,
to which Rayburn, who had heard that sermon, listened with a shock,
which, as he told Carol later, sent a shiver through him from head to
foot.

"Yes, Mr. Rayburn, I think I understand more fully now. My sister
Carol--she has come here with you to-night, and I suppose I am right in
thinking that you were to some extent responsible, quite innocently no
doubt, for her disappearance about a year ago. Is that so?"

"Yes," said Rayburn, "that's so, and that's why I wouldn't shake hands
with you. I did take her away. She has been round the world with me,
travelling with me as my wife, and she isn't my wife, and--well, that is
about all there is."

"And why isn't she your wife?" exclaimed Vane, with an unreasoning burst
of anger. Then, after a little pause, he went on in a tone that was
almost humble.

"I beg your pardon, Mr. Rayburn, that was a foolish thing to say, as
most things said in haste and anger are. You only did what any other man
with no ties and plenty of money would have done under the
circumstances. Forgive me! Only the hand of Providence itself saved me
from committing, without knowledge, an infinitely greater sin than
yours. I suppose Carol has told you how I met her and what happened,
and, of course, my father has told you about my getting out of the cab
that night at the top of the Gardens? No, no, I have nothing to forgive,
nothing to say except, as Carol's brother, to ask you why you have
brought her here? That, at least, I think I am entitled to ask."

"Maxwell," replied Rayburn, pulling himself together as a man might do
after being badly beaten in a fight, "I have been in a good many bad
places in my lifetime, but this has been about the worst, and I'd a