girl's family, though Hatherly Bell's friend,
Dr. Heritage, who then had a practice near Littimer, warned us as well as
he could. Nobody dreamt how far the thing had gone.

"Then those letters of Claire's fell into Lord Littimer's hands. He found
them and locked them up in his safe. Frank, furious at being treated like
a boy, swore to break open the safe and get his letters back. He did so.
And in the same safe, and in the same drawer, was Prince Rupert's ring.
When Lord Littimer missed the letters he missed the ring also and a large
sum of money in notes that he had just received from his tenants. Frank
had stolen the ring and the money, or so it seemed. I shall not soon
forget that day.

"After taking the letters Frank had gone straight to Moreton Wells, and
it looked for a little time as if he had fled. Within an hour of the
discovery of his loss Lord Littimer met Claire Carfax on the cliffs. She
was wearing Prince Rupert's ring. Frank had sent it to her, she said.
Anybody but a man in a furious passion would have seen that the girl was
not responsible for her actions. Littimer told her the true circumstances
of the case. She laughed at him in a queer, vacant way and fled through
the woods. She went down to the beach, where she took a boat and rowed
herself out into the bay. A mile or more from the shore she jumped into
the water, and from that day to this nothing further has been seen of
poor Claire Carfax."

"Or the ring, either?" David asked.

"Or the ring either. The same night Lady Littimer started after her boy.
Littimer was going to have Frank prosecuted. Lady Littimer fled to
Longdean Grange, where Frank joined her. Then my uncle turned up, and
there was a scene. It is said that Lord Littimer struck his wife, but
Frank says that she fell against his gesticulating fist. Anyway, it was
the same as a blow, and Lady Littimer dropped on the floor, dragging a
table down with her, flowers and china and all. You have seen that table
in Longdean Granges. Since then it has never been touched, the place has
never been swept or dusted or garnished. You have seen my aunt, and you
know what the shock has done for her--the shock and the steady
persecutions of Reginald Henson."

"Who seems to be at the bottom of the whole trouble," said David. "But do
you think that was the real ring on the poor girl's finger?"

"I don't. I fancy Henson had a copy made for emergencies. It was he who
sent the copy to Claire, and it was