sing from her seat now
with her face ablaze with indignation. "I was watching you. I had
heard that story, and had heard another story of how the boat of an
antagonist of yours at Henley had been crippled before a race, and
I watched you from the time I came on board. I saw that you were
strangely confident; I saw how you were watching for something; I
saw the flash of triumph in your face when that something happened;
and I was absolutely certain that the same base manoeuvre that had
won you your heat at Henley had been repeated in your race for the
Queen's Cup.

"I don't think, sir, you will want any more specific answer to your
question."

"You will repent this," he panted, his face distorted by a raging
disappointment. "I do not contradict your statements. It would be
beneath me to do so; but some day you may have cause to regret
having made them."

"I may tell you," she said, as she turned, "that it is not my
intention to make public the knowledge that I gained of your
conduct yesterday. I have no proof save my own absolute conviction,
and the knowledge that I have of your past."

He did not look round, but walked at a rapid pace down the garden.
Half an hour later the Phantom's anchor was got up, and she sailed
for Southampton Water. Beyond giving the necessary order to get
under way, Carthew did not speak a word until she anchored off the
pier, then he went ashore at once and took the next train for town,
sending off a telegram before starting.

When he got home he asked the servant briefly if Mr. Conking had
come.

"Yes, sir. He is waiting for you in the dining room."

"Well, Carthew, how have things gone off? I see by the papers this
morning that you won the Cup, and also that the Osprey's bobstay
burst at the right time, and that a great sensation had been caused
by the discovery that there had been foul play.

"Why, what is the matter with you? You look as black as a
thundercloud."

"And no wonder. I won the race, but I have lost the girl."

"The deuce you have. Why, I thought that you felt quite certain of
that."

"So I did; and it would have come off all right if some infernal
fellow had not turned up, and told her about an old affair of mine
that I thought buried and forgotten three or four years ago; and it
took me so aback that, as she said, my face was the best evidence
of the truth of the story. More than that, she declared that she
knew that I was at the bottom of the Osprey's busines