for the abduction of
Violet Maynard held good. She had been informed of half the vile plot in
which he had then been an accomplice--that the yacht belonged to him,
and that it was being used for an elopement. She was still in that
belief, the darker side of the story having been kept from her, and she
was under the delusion that she would have a lady to wait on during the
voyage.

But why, Leslie asked himself, had the delusion been fostered so long
after Nugent, and through him, of course, Brant, had been aware of the
breakdown of the conspiracy? Why, for the matter of that, was the woman
on board at all, since there would be no unhappy captive for whom her
services would be required? The obvious thing to have done would have
been to put her ashore at Weymouth directly the wicked project was
abandoned.

"There must be some mistake," he said. "I am sorry to spoil your
romantic anticipations, but I am certainly not eloping with anybody. So
far as I know, I am to be the only passenger."

"Then what's that old liar's game?" blurted Miss Jimpson. "Only this
morning, when he had the cheek to keep me aboard, he said----"

"Only this morning," Leslie interrupted in dull amazement. "Do you mean
that only to-day for the first time you made the acquaintance of Brant?"

"That is precisely what I do mean. I never saw him or his ship till this
morning at eleven o'clock in the harbour at Weymouth. The yarn he
pitched me then was that he was going to pick up a lady down along the
coast, and that he wanted one of her own sex to keep her company. 'Tis
true he did not say anything about an elopement. It was me who figured
that out after you came aboard alone and the launch went back for the
lady."

"Went back for the lady!" gasped Leslie, a lurid light beginning to dawn
upon his dazed senses.

"Well, I expect it's one of my own sex; I don't suppose all the pretty
frilly things Brant ordered and paid for, and which I brought on board,
were for you or any other gentleman," was Miss Nettle Jimpson's pert
rejoinder. "That's what gave me the elopement notion, don't you see--a
girl running away on the quiet, and in too much of a pucker to bring her
own trunks. And I'm right, after all! Here's the launch back again, and
just listen to that!"

Leslie had been conscious of the clack of the electric motor for the
last thirty seconds, but now, as it sounded close under the side of the
steamer, slowing down at the foot of the accommodation