t rescue Miss Anne," said Giles, "and save us this
journey, Dane?"

"I couldn't. Mrs. Johns allowed me to see Miss Anne, as she had no
reason to suspect me; but she kept guard at the door, and would not let
me out of her sight almost. If I had tried to take Miss Anne ashore,
she'd have brought the crew on me. They are all Morley's creatures. I
should simply have been poleaxed and dropped overboard, while the yacht
sailed away. No, sir. I told Miss Anne my difficulty, and asked her to
send a line to you at the Priory--where I knew you were--that you might
follow. She wrote three or four words----"

"I know," interrupted Giles, "and enclosed the coin."

"She did that, sir, so that you could be sure the message came from her.
I posted the letter. Then I went on shore and waited till Morley came
back. I learned from Miss Anne that the boat was going to Bilbao, and
when she started I came on to the Priory to ask if I could join in the
hunt for Miss Anne. Yes," cried Dane, shaking his fist, "and the hunt
after that devil Morley."

"Why do you hate him so?" asked Giles, wondering at the man's fierceness
and ill-suppressed emotion.

Dane thought for a moment, then answered, with his eyes on the deck,
"Morley killed my mother," he said in a low voice. "No, sir, not in the
way you think. He killed her by telling her what I was. She was a good
woman. She brought me up well, and did her best to make me a decent man.
I was well behaved till I went to Italy to study singing, and fell in
with Denham. He made me bad. Afterwards Morley made me worse. I have
thieved, I have--but what does the catalogue of my crimes matter to
you, sir? In a word, Denham and Morley ruined me. I hate them both, but
Morley worst of all. Do you think Denham will recover?"

"From his broken leg? Of course he will, and then he will be taken to
jail at once. Steel left the warrant behind to be executed, in order
that he might come with me."

"I hope Denham will get a long sentence, sir," said Dane savagely. "He
is a bad man. But Morley--nothing short of death will expiate his crime
so far as I am concerned. I wanted to reform, sir. Miss Anne was so good
to me that I saw how wicked was the life I was living. I wished to
reform and return to my mother. Morley heard of this. He followed me to
New York, where I was then. I had fled from the gang, saying I would
have nothing more to do with the thieving. Morley found me with my
mother. He told her what I was.