and realistic picture. Robert must see Bendigo all
alone--and he must have food and a lamp in his secret hiding-place.
He has been in France--that was a sop for you, Mark--but can endure
suspense no longer.

"Well, it's fixed up and Ben decides to meet his brother after
midnight, alone; but the old sailor's pluck wavers--who shall blame
him?--and he arranged in secret with you that you should be hidden
in his tower room when Robert Redmayne comes to keep the
appointment. He writes a letter to his brother, and Jenny and Doria
go to sea again and take it, together with stores and a lamp. While
they're away, you get planted in the tower room to watch the coming
interview; and when the pair in the motor boat return, Jenny's uncle
tells her that you've gone back to Dartmouth and will blow in again
next morning. You recollect exactly what followed. Night comes and,
at the appointed time, footsteps are heard ascending to the
observatory and Bendigo prepares to meet his brother. But no Robert
Redmayne appears. It is Giuseppe Doria. He has already had a long
talk with his master about Jenny Pendean. He has told the old sailor
of his love for Jenny and so forth. You, hidden, heard that yarn,
and how Bendigo told him to stow the subject and say no more about
it for another six months.

"Now the next thing puzzled me for a moment; but I think I know what
happened. Only Pendean's final statement, if he ever makes one, will
serve to clear the point; but I can guess that at that first
interview with Ben he tumbled to the fact that you were hidden in
the tower room. He is a man with a power of observation sharp as a
razor, and I'm inclined to bet that before he left Bendigo, after
their talk over Jenny, he'd got you--knew you were there.

"That being so, his own plans had to be modified pretty extensively.
Whether he meant to finish off Ben that night, you can't be sure;
but there is very little doubt of it. Everything was planned. The
interview with Robert had been arranged and various people,
including yourself, knew about it. His wife was ready down below to
help him get the body away, and their plans were, no doubt, mature
to the last detail. If, therefore, all had gone right with Pendean,
if you had really been away that night, next morning you would
probably have been greeted with the information that Bendigo had
disappeared. You would possibly have found evidences of a struggle
in the tower room and a pint of blood judicious