ember, that would explain something which admits of no other
reasonable explanation," went on my companion; "the barred windows and
the behavior of the prisoner."

"It would explain that, certainly," I admitted, though, at first
thought, the theory did not appeal to me. "You believe, then that Miss
Holladay was forcibly abducted?"

"Undoubtedly. If her mind was going to give way at all, it would have
done so at once, and not two weeks after the tragedy."

"But if she had brooded over it," I objected.

"She wasn't brooding--at least, she had ceased to brood. You have Mr.
Royce's word and the butler's word that she was getting better,
brighter, quite like her old self again. Why should she relapse?"

"I don't know," I said helplessly. "The more I reason about it, the
more unreasonable it all seems. Besides, that affair last night has
upset me so that I can't think clearly. I feel that I was
careless--that I wasn't doing my duty."

"I shouldn't worry about it; though, of course," she added a little
severely, "you've realized by this time that you alone are to blame
for Martigny's presence on the boat."

"But I had to go to the Jourdains'," I protested, "and I couldn't help
their going to him--to have asked them not to go would have made them
suspect me at once."

"Oh, yes; but, at least, you needn't have sent them. They might not
have gone at all--certainly they wouldn't have gone so promptly--if
you hadn't sent them."

"Sent them?" I repeated, and stared at her in amazement, doubting if I
had heard aright.

"Yes, sent them," she said again, emphatically. "Why do you suppose
they went to the hospital so early the next morning?"

"I supposed they had become suspicious of me."

"Nonsense! What possible reason could they have for becoming
suspicious of you. On the contrary, it was because they were _not_
suspicious of you, because they wished to please you, to air your room
for you; because, in a word, you asked them to go--they went after the
key to those padlocks on the window-shutters. Of course, Martigny had
it."

For a moment, I was too nonplused to speak; I could only stare at her.
Then I found my tongue.

"Well, I _was_ a fool, wasn't I?" I demanded bitterly. "To think that
I shouldn't have foreseen that! I was so worked up over my discovery
that night that I couldn't think of anything else. Of course, when
they asked for the key, the whole story came out."

"I shouldn't blame myself too severely,"