pect you
have now cleared the ground."

"Dick has missed his vocation; he ought to have been a barrister,"
Mordaunt remarked.

"I'm trying to be just to you and Jim," Dick resumed. "I have shirked
my duty; I trusted you, Lance, and when I found you out it hurt."

"You trusted me until you found Jim was the better man! Well, it looks
as if others had copied your example," Mordaunt rejoined.

Bernard made an impatient sign and Dick resumed: "I've been leading to
the night Jim and Carrie were nearly drowned. You all know I was on
the sands. Well, I came to Jim's punt when he had left her and gone to
look for the geese." Dick paused and taking out a plan that he put on
the table, addressed Jim: "You dragged the punt up the bank and carried
out the anchor. Is this sketch of the spot accurate?"

Mordaunt moved abruptly, but controlled himself and stood very quiet;
Jim picked up the paper and his face got dark.

"So far as I remember, it is accurate."

"Did you pull the punt down again, or move the anchor?"

"I did not. I was puzzled when I found her floating and the anchor
covered."

Dick gave Bernard the plan. "The punt ought not to have floated before
Jim got back. You will note the rows of dots. They stand for
footsteps. The first was Jim's; then Shanks came and pulled the punt
back into the channel--I saw the mark of the rollers, leading up and
down. It is plain he wanted to leave Jim on the middle sand when the
tide rose."

"How did you know the steps were Shanks'?" Bernard asked.

"The night was very cold, sir, but he was bare-footed."

"Your surmise is, no doubt, right. Anybody else would have worn boots
or waders. But there are three rows of tracks."

Dick hesitated, then answered quietly: "The last were Lance's. He
passed the punt close; I don't know if he touched her, but it was plain
that she would soon float and Jim was not about."

"This is frankly unthinkable, Dick!" Mrs. Halliday exclaimed.

For a moment or two the others were silent and their attitudes
indicated that the strain was heavy. Mrs. Halliday's face was flushed,
Jim's was very stern, and Bernard knitted his brows. Dick and Mordaunt
stood motionless but tense at opposite ends of the table.

"Your statement is very grave, Dick," Bernard remarked. "Are you
persuaded the steps were Lance's?"

"I knew the marks of his fishing brogues, and saw him a short distance
off. I think he saw me, because he vanished; he went