d for the dead. This work, long continued, had yielded no
results whatever.

Later in the day Brendon returned to his hotel and introduced
himself to Miss Reed and her family to find that her brother, Robert
Redmayne's friend, had returned to London. She and her parents were
sitting together in the lounge when he joined them. All three
appeared to be much shocked and painfully mystified. None could
throw any light. Mr. and Mrs. Reed were quiet, elderly people who
kept a draper shop in London; their daughter revealed more
character. She was a head taller than her father and cast in a
generous mould. She exhibited a good deal of manner and less actual
sorrow than might have been expected; but Brendon discovered that
she had only known Robert Redmayne for half a year and their actual
engagement was not of much more than a month's duration. Miss Reed
was dark, animated, and commonplace of mind. Her ambition had been
to go upon the stage and she had acted on tour in the country; but
she declared that theatrical life wearied her and she had promised
her future husband to abandon the art.

"Did you ever hear Captain Redmayne speak of his niece and her
husband?" Brendon inquired, and Flora Reed answered:

"He did; and he always said that Michael Pendean was a 'shirker' and
a coward. He also assured me that he had done with his niece and
should never forgive her for marrying her husband. But that was
before Bob went to Princetown, six days ago. From there he wrote
quite a different story. He had met them by chance and he found that
Mr. Pendean had not shirked but done good work in the war and got
the O.B.E. After that discovery, Bob changed and he was certainly on
the best of terms with the Pendeans before this awful thing
happened. He had already made them promise to come here for the
regattas."

"You have neither seen nor heard of the captain since?"

"Indeed, no. My last letter, which you can see, came three days ago.
In it he merely said he would be back yesterday and meet me to bathe
as usual. I went to bathe and looked out for him, but of course he
didn't come."

"Tell me a little about him, Miss Reed," said Mark. "It is good of
you to give me this interview, for we are up against a curious
problem and the situation, as it appears at present, may be illusive
and quite unlike the real facts. Captain Redmayne, I hear, had
suffered from shell shock and a breath of poison gas also. Did you
ever notice any signs that t