ghter were left alone for the first time
since the accident.

"What happened?" she asked.

"It was going to be a little surprise for you," he said. "A little
scheme of my own, my dear; you're always calling me a funk, and I
wanted to prove----"

"What happened?" she asked tersely.

"Well, I went out yesterday morning and fixed it all. I bought the
rifle, an old English rifle, at Amiens from a peasant. I thought it
might come in handy, especially as the man threw in a packet of
ammunition. Yesterday morning, lying awake before daybreak, I thought it
out. I went up to the hill--the land belongs to an empty house, by the
way--and I located the spot, put the rifle where I could find it easily,
and fixed a pair of glass goggles on to one of the bushes, where the sun
would catch it. The whole scheme was not without its merit as a piece of
strategy, my dear," he said complacently.

"And then----?" she said.

"I thought we'd go bathing yesterday, but we didn't, but to-day--it was
a long time before anybody spotted the glasses, but once I had the
excuse for going ashore and investigating, the rest was easy."

She nodded.

"So that was why you asked me to keep her on the raft, and make her
stand up?"

He nodded.

"Well----?" she demanded.

"I went up to the spot, got the rifle and took aim. I've always been a
pretty good shot----"

"You didn't advertise it to-day," she said sardonically. "Then I suppose
somebody hit you on the head?"

He nodded and made a grimace, but any movement of his injured cranium
was excessively painful.

"Who was it?" she asked.

He shrugged his shoulders.

"Don't ask fool questions," he said petulantly. "I know nothing. I
didn't even feel the blow. I just remember taking aim, and then
everything went dark."

"And how would you have explained it all, supposing you had succeeded?"

"That was easy," he said. "I should have said that I went in search of
the man we had seen, I heard a shot and rushed forward and found nothing
but the rifle."

She was silent, pinching her lips absently.

"And you took the risk of some peasant or visitor seeing you--took the
risk of bringing the police to the spot and turning what might have
easily been a case of accidental death into an obvious case of wilful
murder. I think you called yourself a strategist," she asked politely.

"I did my best," he growled.

"Well, don't do it again, father," she said. "Your foolhardiness appals
me, and heaven