ram and read the
contents. It ran as follows:--

_"Sibyl has had bad fall from pony. Case hopeless. Come home
at once."_

"So Sibyl, whoever Sibyl may be, is at the bottom of Ogilvie's fall,"
thought Rycroft. "Poor chap! he has got a fearful shock. Best make all
safe. I must see things through."

Without an instant's hesitation Rycroft took the already signed
document, thrust it into an envelope, directed it in full and stamped
it. Then he went to the telegraph messenger who was still waiting
outside.

"No answer to the cable, but take this at once to the post-office and
register it," he said; "here is money--you can keep the change."

The man departed on his errand, carrying the signed document.

Rycroft now bent over Ogilvie. There was a slightly blue tinge round
his lips, but the rest of his face was white and drawn.

"Looks like death," muttered Rycroft. He unfastened Ogilvie's collar
and thrust his hand beneath his shirt. He felt the faint, very faint
beat of the heart.

"Still living," he murmured, with a sigh of relief. He applied the
usual restoratives. In a few moments Ogilvie opened his eyes.

"What has happened?" he said, looking round him in a dazed way. "Oh, I
remember, I had a message from London."

"Yes, old fellow, don't speak for a moment."

"I must get back at once; the child----"

"All right, you shall go in the _Sahara_ to-morrow."

"But the document," said Ogilvie, "it--isn't needed; I want it back."

"Don't trouble about it now."

Ogilvie staggered to his feet.

"You don't understand. I did it because--because of one who will not
need it. I want it back."

"Too late," said Rycroft, then. "That document is already in the post.
Come, you must pull yourself together for the sake of Sibyl, whoever
she is."

CHAPTER XVI.

There was a pretty white room at Silverbel in which lay a patient
child. She lay flat on her back just as she had lain ever since the
accident. Her bed was moved into the wide bay window, and from there
she could look out at the lovely garden and at the shining Thames just
beyond. From where she lay she could also see the pleasure boats and
the steamers crowded with people as they went up and down the busy
river, and it seemed to her that her thoughts followed those boats
which went toward the sea. It seemed to her further that her spirit
entered one of the great ships at the mouth of the Thames and crossed
in it the boundless deep, and found