she is not well enough for that, of course
she must stay on board."

Lady Greendale had just come into the saloon when he went down.

"I think I have got a clue--a very faint one," he said. "I am going
up to town at once to follow it up. How are you feeling, Lady
Greendale?"

"I have a terrible headache, but that is nothing. Of course, I will
go up with you."

"But do you feel equal to it?"

"Oh, yes, quite," she said, feverishly. "What is your clue, Frank?"

"Well, it concerns the yacht in which I believe Bertha has been
carried off. At any rate, I feel so certain as to who had a hand in
it, that I have no hesitation in telling you that it was Carthew."

"Mr. Carthew! Impossible, Frank. He always seemed to me a
particularly pleasant and gentlemanly man."

"He might seem that, but I happen to know other things about him.
He is an unmitigated scoundrel. Of course, not a word must be said
about it, Lady Greendale. You see that for Bertha's sake we must
work quietly. It would never do for the matter to get into the
papers."

"It would be too dreadful, Frank. I do think that it would kill me.
I will trust it in your hands altogether. I have only one comfort
in this dreadful affair, and that is that Bertha has Anna with
her."

"That is certainly a great comfort; and it is something in the
man's favour that when he enticed her from the yacht with that
forged letter he suggested that she should bring her maid."

Chapter 12.

Frank Mallet and Lady Greendale crossed to Southampton by the
twelve o'clock boat, and arrived in London at three.

"I have been thinking," she said, as they went up, "that it will be
better for me to stop in town. I shall have less difficulty in
answering questions there than I should have at home. Everyone is
leaving now, and in another week there will be scarcely a soul in
London I know; and I shall keep down the front blinds, and no one
will dream of my being there. I shall only have to mention to
Bertha's own maid that my daughter has remained at Cowes, that I
have left Anna with her, and that she can wait upon me until she
returns. There will be another advantage in it--you can see me
whenever you are in town. I shall get your letters a post quicker
when you are away, and you can telegraph to me freely; whereas, if
you telegraphed to Chippenham, whoever received the message there
might mention its contents as curious to someone or other, and
then, of course, it would become a