nt. I don't believe that you
were any more shipwrecked than I was."

"Not so much," added the irrepressible Mr. Vickers.

Mr. Tredgold walked to the door. "I am busy," he said, curtly. "Good
morning."

Miss Vickers passed him with head erect, and her small figure trembling
with rage and determination. By the time she had cross-examined Mr.
Chalk her wildest suspicions were confirmed. His account differed in
several particulars from the others, and his alarm and confusion when
taxed with the discrepancies were unmistakable.

Binchester rang with the story of her wrongs, and, being furnished with
three different accounts of the same incident, seemed inclined to display
a little pardonable curiosity. To satisfy this, intimates of the
gentlemen most concerned were provided with an official version, which
Miss Vickers discovered after a little research was compiled for the most
part by adding all the statements together and dividing by three. She
paid another round of visits to tax them with the fact, and, strong in
the justice of her cause, even followed them in the street demanding her
money.

"There's one comfort," she said to the depressed Mr. Tasker. "I've got
you, Joseph. They can't take you away from me."

"There's nobody could do that," responded Mr. Tasker, with a sigh of
resignation.

"And if I had to choose," continued Miss Vickers, putting her arm round
his waist, "I'd sooner have you than a hundred thousand pounds."

Mr. Tasker sighed again at the idea of an article estimated at so high a
figure passing into the possession of Selina Vickers. In a voice broken
with emotion he urged her to persevere in her claims to a fortune which
he felt would alone make his fate tolerable. The unsuspecting Selina
promised.

"She'll quiet down in time," said Captain Bowers to Mr. Chalk, after the
latter had been followed nearly all the way to Dialstone Lane by Miss
Vickers, airing her grievance and calling upon him to remedy it. "Once
she realizes the fact that the ship is lost, she'll be all right."

Mr. Chalk looked unconvinced. "She doesn't want to realize it," he said,
shaking his head.

"She'll be all right in time," repeated the captain; "and after all, you
know," he added, with gentle severity, "you deserve to suffer a little.
You had no business with that map."

CHAPTER XXIII

On a fine afternoon towards the end of the following month Captain
Brisket and Mr. Duckett sat outside the Swa