little then, looking down at her as she leaned upon the rail
with downcast face. At length, as she did not raise her head, he
addressed her for the first time on his own initiative:

"Miss Mortimer!"

She made a slight movement to indicate that she was listening, but she
remained gazing down into the green and white of the racing water.

Unconsciously he moved a little nearer to her. "There is no occasion for
you to feel badly," he said. "I had my own reasons for what I did. It
doesn't much matter what they were. But let me tell you for your comfort
that neither socially nor professionally has it done me any harm."

"They are all saying: 'Set a thief to catch a thief,'" she interposed,
with something like a sob in her voice.

"They can say what they like."

West's tone expressed the most stoical indifference, but she would not
be comforted.

"If only I hadn't--asked you to!" she murmured.

He made his peculiar, shrugging gesture. "What does it matter? Moreover,
what you asked of me was something quite apart from this. It had nothing
whatever to do with it."

She stood up sharply at that, and faced him with burning eyes. "Oh,
don't tell me that lie!" she exclaimed passionately. "I'm not such a
child as to be taken in by it. You don't deceive me at all, Mr. West. I
know as well as you do--better--that the man who did the swindling last
night was not you. And I'm sick--I'm downright sick--whenever I think of
it!"

West's expression changed slightly as he looked at her. He seemed to
regard her as a doctor regards the patient for whom he contemplates a
change of treatment.

"See here," he abruptly said. "You are distressing yourself all to no
purpose. If you will promise to keep it secret, I'll tell you the facts
of the case."

Cynthia's face changed also. She caught eagerly at the suggestion.
"Yes?" she said. "Yes? I promise, of course. And I'm quite trustworthy."

"I believe you are," he said, with a grim smile. "Well, the fact of the
matter is this. The man we want is on board this ship, but being only a
private detective, I don't possess a warrant for his arrest. Therefore
all I can do is to keep him in sight. And I can only do that by throwing
him as far as possible off the scent. If he takes me for a card-sharper,
all the better. For he's as slippery as an eel, and I have to play him
pretty carefully."

He ceased. Cynthia's eyes were growing wider and wider.

"Nat Verney on board this ship?" she gasp