y inconsequent smile. "Guess I've got you
on my side now," she said with satisfaction. "You're nice and solid, Mr.
Jake Bolton. When you've been picked up from the very bottom of the sea,
it's good to have someone big and safe to hold on to."

"That so?" said Jake.

"Yes, I know now why Lord Saltash sent me here--just because you're
big--and safe."

"Oh, quite safe," said Jake with his sudden smile.

It came to him--as it had come to Saltash--that there was something
piteously like a small animal, storm-driven and seeking refuge, about
her. Even in her merriest moments she seemed to plead for kindness.

He patted her shoulder reassuringly as he let her go. "I'll look after
you," he said, "if you play the game."

"What game?" said Toby unexpectedly.

He looked her squarely in the eyes. "The only game worth playing," he
said. "The straight game."

"Oh, I see," said Toby with much meekness. "Not cheat, you mean? Lord
Saltash doesn't allow cheating either."

"Good land!" said Jake in open astonishment.

"You don't know him," said Toby again with conviction.

And Jake laughed, good-humoured but sceptical. "Maybe I've something to
learn yet," he said tolerantly. "But it's my impression that for sheer
mischief and double-dealing he could knock spots off any other human
being on this earth."

"Oh, if that's all you know about him," said Toby, "you've never even met
him--never once."

"Have you?" questioned Jake abruptly.

She coloured up to the soft fair hair that clustered about her
blue-veined temples, and turned from him with an odd little indrawn
breath. "Yes!" she said. "Yes!"--paused an instant as if about to say
more; then again in a whisper, "Yes!" she said, and went lightly away as
if the subject were too sacred for further discussion.

"Good land!" said Jake again, and departed to his own room in grim
amazement.

Saltash the sinner was well known to him and by no means uncongenial; but
Saltash the saint, not only beloved, but reverenced and enshrined as
such, as something beyond his comprehension! How on earth had he managed
to achieve his sainthood?

CHAPTER IX

THE IDOL

"Well?" said Saltash with quizzical interest. "Where is she? And how is
she getting on?"

It was the Sunday afternoon of his promised visit, a day soft with spring
showers and fleeting sunshine. Maud sat in a basket-chair on the verandah
and regarded him with puzzled eyes. She passed his questions by.

"Charlie,"