at any minute unless I secured her) and it
was painful that at such a crisis she should throw her once unattainable
stepsister at my head.

Next day, to be sure, when Alb brought the motor-boat to our rescue at
Urk, the way Nell's big hazel eyes lit up at sight of him, set my heart
vibrating again like a pendulum, and I found myself much in the same
condition I had been in at first; unable to decide which, after all, was
the more indispensable of the two girls. But this return to chaos did
not make for peace of mind, because, though I could not bear to lose
either, I should be lucky if I contrived to keep one. Besides, there was
the worry about Sir Alec MacNairne, and the danger that he might pounce
down upon us to destroy the fabric I had so carefully woven.

Altogether, the features of Friesland were not cut with the same
cameo-clearness upon my perception that other parts of Holland had taken
a few weeks or even days ago, when I was young and happy.

As I remarked early in our black partnership, even an Albatross can
have its uses. Perhaps, if the truth were known, the Ancient Mariner
occasionally fell down and would have broken a bone if the Albatross,
tied round his neck, had not acted as a kind of cushion for his
protection. At Amsterdam, in a moment of peril for our plot, Alb acted
somewhat in this capacity for me, showing himself to be possessed of all
that shrewd adroitness which should furnish the equipment of every
well-regulated villain. At Leeuwarden, therefore, it was for me to do
something desperate when desperate need arose.

I shall never cease to applaud my own presence of mind in the matter of
turning the enemy's flank. My wrists were lame for days after that
famous handshake with Aunt Fay's husband which, in his surprise, spun
the big fellow round like a teetotum, and gave Alb a chance to vanish
with the girls.

If Aunt Fay had indeed been on board "Lorelei," re-named "Mascotte"; if
the "M.," late "L.," had been Brederode's boat, and he had really been
flirting with my aunt through the waterways of Holland, according to Sir
Alec's wild impression, I couldn't have been more anxious to save her
from his jealous wrath by giving him the slip.

Alb had never spoken of a flirtation, and though, at the time it was
first sprung upon me by Sir Alec, I was angry with the Albatross for his
close-mouthedness, my inconvenient sense of justice forced me to admit
afterwards that it wasn't exactly the kind of