me to-day. They sent me off. Old Jim--well, you know
as well as I do. With your permission, I'm going to stay the night.
I'll bunk in the hall, or anywhere. Don't think of a bed for me; I
don't want one."

"I'm glad you'll stay. It seems, somehow, as if every one helps; that
is, every one who cares for him."

"Doctor Thayer thinks there will be a change tonight, though it is
difficult to tell. Jim's family have my telegram by this time, and
they will get my letter to-morrow, probably. Anyway, I shall wait
until morning before I send another message."

The tension of their thoughts was too sharp; they turned for relief to
the scene before them, stopping at the stile to look back at the
steepled white church, standing under its spreading balm-of-Gilead tree.

"It seems strange," said Agatha, "to think that I sat out there under
that big tree as a little girl. Everything is so different now."

"Ilion, then, was once your home?"

"No, never my home, though it was once my mother's home. I used to
visit here occasionally, years and years ago."

Aleck produced his quizzical grin. "A gallant person would protest
that that is incredible."

"I wasn't angling for gallantry," Agatha replied wearily. "I am
twenty-six, and I haven't been here certainly since I was eight years
old. Eighteen years are a good many."

"To youth, yes," acquiesced Aleck. "Which reminds me, by contrast, of
the hermit; he was so incredibly old. It was he who unwittingly put me
on Jim's track. He said that the owner or proprietor of the _Jeanne
D'Arc_ was dropped ashore on his island."

"Monsieur Chatelard?" cried Agatha.

"I don't know his name."

"If it was Monsieur Chatelard," Agatha paused, looking earnestly at
Aleck, "if it was he, it is the man who tricked me into his motor-car
in New York, drugged me and carried me aboard his yacht while I was
unconscious."

Aleck turned a sharp, though not unsympathetic, gaze upon Agatha. "I
have told no one but Doctor Thayer, and he did not believe me. But it
is quite true; the wreck saved me, probably, from something worse,
though I don't know what."

If there had been skepticism on Aleck's face for an instant it had
disappeared. Instead, there was deep concern, as he considered the
case.

"Had you ever seen the man Chatelard before?"

"Never to my knowledge."

"Did he visit you on board the yacht?"

"Only once. I was put into the charge of an old lady, a Frenchwoman,
Mada