hall not be kept in
anxiety. As a matter of fact, my friend, whom you met with me up there
at the ruins, is going ashore again in a few minutes. He will go
straight to the nearest telegraph office, which is a mile or two
inland, and there he will send a wire to Mr. Raven--from you. Mr.
Raven will get it by, say, seven o'clock. The thing is--how will you
word it?"

We looked at each other. In that exchange of glances, I could see that
he was a man who was quick at appreciating difficulties and that he
saw the peculiar niceties of the present one.

"That's a pretty stiff question!" said I.

"Just so!" he agreed. "It is. So take my advice. Instead of having the
wire sent from the nearest office, do this--my friend, as a matter of
fact, is going on by rail to Berwick. Let him send a wire from there:
it will only mean that Mr. Raven will get it an hour or so later. Say
that you and Miss Raven find you cannot get home tonight, and that she
is quite safe--word it in any reassuring way you like."

I gave him a keen glance.

"The thing is," said I. "Can we get home tomorrow?"

"Well--possibly tomorrow night--late," he answered. "I will do my
best. I may be--I hope to be--through with my business tomorrow
afternoon. Then--"

At that moment the other man appeared on deck, emerging from
somewhere. He had changed his clothes--he now presented himself in a
smart tweed suit, Homburg hat, polished shoes, gloves, walking cane.
Baxter signed to him to wait, turning to me.

"That's the wisest thing to do," he remarked. "Draft your wire."

I wrote out a message which I hoped would allay Mr. Raven's anxieties
and handed it to him. He read it over, nodded as if in approbation,
and went across to the other man. For a moment or two they stood
talking in low tones; then the other man went over the side, dropped
into the boat which lay there, and pulled himself off shorewards.
Baxter came back to me.

"He'll send that from Berwick railway station as soon as he gets
there, at six-thirty," he said. "It should be delivered at Ravensdene
Court by eight. So there's no need to worry further, you can tell Miss
Raven. And when all's said and done, Mr. Middlebrook, it wasn't my
fault that you and she broke in upon very private doings up there in
the old churchyard--nor, I suppose, yours either. Make the best of
it!--it's only a temporary detention."

I was watching him closely as he talked, and suddenly I made up my
mind to speak out. It m