gent's plan for flight on the _Cobra_. He had postponed giving his
final decision, hoping against hope that something might turn up to save
him, and also because at the back of his mind there still lurked the
suspicion that Nugent's account of his danger might have been trumped up
for some cunning purpose. But now he was to receive confirmation of the
story of Louise Aubin's suspicions from a source there was no
gainsaying.

"Take me into the orangery; I want to speak to you," said Violet, laying
her hand on his sleeve.

The orangery at Ottermouth Manor was a huge glass structure in which
oranges may have been grown in Georgian days after the prevailing
fashion, but which in modern times sheltered a wealth of tropical
shrubs. In the great aisles of luxuriant foliage it was possible to lose
oneself, as Violet and Leslie, after passing through one of the long
windows, proceeded to do now. They halted at last under the spreading
fronds of a giant palm, from a branch of which depended one of the
electric lamps which the millionaire had installed in the old mansion.

"Leslie," said the girl, looking up into her lover's face, "I have done
a strange thing to-night, as proof of my trust in you. That French maid
of mine tells me that you had a rendezvous with the man who was murdered
the other day, and that it was at or near to the spot where the body was
found. I have been blaming her for withholding her knowledge from the
authorities, and have advised her to rectify the omission without delay.
You mustn't be angry with me if I have been unduly interfering, but I
knew that you could have nothing to fear really in the matter of
Levison's death, and that it would be better to scotch this ridiculous
suspicion before it grows unmanageable."

Chermside laughed, keeping the bitterness out of the sound of it as best
he could. To call it the irony of fate was beside the mark. It was
really almost supernatural, the way he was being tossed hither and
thither by the consequences of the crime he had abjured. Here was the
woman who was all in all to him calmly telling him that she had taken a
step which would snatch the last straw from his drowning hands. All hope
was gone. He must run for it now, if the traces of his disgraceful lapse
were to be covered.

"It is quite true," he said. "I had an appointment to meet Levison.
But," and he laughed again as he made the addition, "I really didn't
murder him, Violet."

The taper fingers, gl