no resistance. Those shots you heard
were doubtless the result of some drunken quarrel over the loot."

"Do you really think so, Doctor?"

"I feel quite sure of it. If it had been Forster who had gone out, and
he had been detected, it would have been natural enough that we should
hear the sound of something like a battle. In the first place, he would
have defended himself desperately, and, in the next, he might have made
his way through them and escaped; but, as I said, with Bathurst there
would be no occasion for their firing."

"Why didn't he come in to say goodby before he went? that is what I
wanted to ask you, Doctor, and why I came up here. I wanted to have
spoken to him, if only for a moment, before he started. I tried to catch
his eye as he went out of the room with you, but he did not even look at
me. It will be so hard if he never comes back, to know that he went away
without my having spoken to him again. I did try this morning to tell
him that I was sorry for what I said, but he would not listen to me."

"You will have an opportunity of telling him when he comes back, if you
want to, or of showing him so by your manner, which would be, perhaps,
less painful to both of you."

"I don't care about pain to myself," the girl said. "I have been unjust,
and deserve it."

"I don't think he considers you unjust. I did, and told you so. He feels
what he considers the disgrace so much that it seems to him perfectly
natural he should be despised."

"Yes, but I want him to see that he is not despised," she said quickly.
"You don't understand, Doctor."

"I do understand perfectly, my dear; at least, I think--I think I do; I
see that you want to put yourself straight with him, which is very right
and proper, especially placed as we all are; but I would not do or say
anything hastily. You have spoken hastily once, you see, and made a mess
of it. I should be careful how I did it again, unless, of course," and
he stopped.

"Unless what, Doctor?" Isobel asked shyly, after a long pause. But there
was no reply; and looking round she saw that her companion had moved
quietly away and had joined Wilson at his post. She stood for a
few minutes in the same attitude, and then moved quietly across the
staircase in the center of the terrace, and went down to the party
below. A short time later the Doctor followed her, and, taking his
rifle, went out into the garden with Captain Doolan, who assisted him in
climbing the tree, a