to
regret answering me."

Mrs. Richards bowed.

"In the first place, you and your husband have been away from this part
of the country for quite a long time, haven't you?"

"Yes. For a number of years."

"And you have not always been as well off, financially, as you are now?"

"That is quite true. My husband, shortly after our marriage, failed in
business, owing--owing to conditions he couldn't control."

"Isn't it true, Mrs. Richards, that those conditions were the result of
his marriage to you? Didn't your father, a very rich man, resent your
marriage so deeply that he tried to ruin your husband in order to force
you to leave him?"

There were tears in the woman's eyes as she nodded her head in answer.

"Thank you. I know this is very painful--but I must really do all this.
You refused to leave your husband, however, and when he decided to go to
Alaska, you went with him?

"And there he made a lucky strike, some four or five years ago, that
made him far richer than he had ever dreamed of becoming?"

"That is quite true."

"But, although you were rich, you did not come home? You spent a good
deal of time in the Far North, and when you went out for a rest, you
came no further east than Seattle or San Francisco?"

"There was no reason for us to come here. All our friends had turned
against us in our misfortunes, and our only child was dead. So it was
only a few months ago that we came home."

"That is very tragic. Thank you, Mrs. Richards. One moment--I have
another question to ask."

He stepped toward the gangplank.

"I will be back in a moment," he said.

He went on board the boat, and while all those on the dock, puzzled and
mystified by his questions, waited, he disappeared. When he returned he
was not alone. A woman was with him, and, at the sight of her Bessie
gave a cry of astonishment.

"Now, Mrs. Richards," said Charlie. "Have you ever seen this woman
before?"

"I think I have," she said, in a strange, puzzled tone. "But--she has
changed so--"

"Her name is Mrs. Hoover, Mrs. Richards. Does that help you to
remember?"

"Oh!" Mrs. Richards sobbed and burst into tears. "Mrs. Hoover!" she
said, brokenly. "To think that I could forget you! Tell me--"

"One moment," said Charlie, interrupting. His own voice was not very
steady, and Eleanor, a look of dawning understanding in her eyes, was
staring at him, greatly moved. "It was with Mrs. Hoover that you left
your child when you went west un