laughed Miss Kemball, as she
looked at my rueful countenance. "I myself think it's rather fortunate
that he's on the boat."

"Fortunate? You don't mean that!"

"Precisely that. Suppose the Jourdains hadn't gone to him; he'd have
left the hospital anyway in two or three days--he isn't the man to lie
inactive when he knew you were searching for the fugitives. He'd have
returned, then, to his apartment next to yours; your landlady would
have told him that you had sailed for Europe, and he had only to
examine this boat's passenger-list to discover your name. So you see
there wasn't so much lost, after all."

"But, at any rate," I pointed out, "he would still have been in
America. He couldn't have caught us. We'd have had a good start of
him."

"He couldn't have caught you, but a cablegram would have passed you in
mid-ocean, warning his confederates. If they have time to conceal
their prisoner, you'll never find her--your only hope is in catching
them unprepared. And there's another reason--since he's on the boat,
you've another opportunity--why not go and have a talk with him--that
battle of wits you were looking forward to?"

"I'd thought of that," I said; "but I'm afraid I couldn't play the
part."

"The part?"

"Of seeming not to suspect him, of being quite frank and open with
him, of appearing to tell him all my plans. I'm afraid he'd see
through me in the first moment and catch me tripping. It's too great a
risk."

"The advantage would be on your side," she pointed out; "you could
tell him so many things which he already knows, and which he has no
reason to suspect you know he knows--it sounds terribly involved,
doesn't it? But you understand?"

"Oh, yes; I understand."

"And then, it would be the natural thing for you to look him up as
soon as you learned he was ill. To avoid him will be to confess that
you suspect him."

"But his name isn't on the passenger list. If I hadn't happened to see
him as he came on board, I'd probably not have known it at all."

"Perhaps he saw you at the same time."

"Then the fat's in the fire," I said. "If he knows I know he's on
board, then he also knows that I suspect him; if he doesn't know, why,
there's no reason for him to think that I'll find it out, unless he
appears in the cabin; which doesn't seem probable."

She sat silent for a moment, looking out across the water.

"Perhaps you're right," she said at last; "there's no use taking any
unnecessary risks. The