f the affair for nine days--and perhaps a little more. Mr.
Cazalette talked a great deal: as for Miss Raven and myself, as actors
in the last act of the drama which ended in such a tragedy, we talked
little: we had seen too much at close quarters. But on the first
occasion on which she and I were alone again, I made a confession to
her.

"I don't want you--of all people--to get any mistaken impression about
me," I said. "So, I'm going to tell you something. During the whole of
the time you and I were on that yawl, I was in an absolute panic of
fear!"

"You were?" she exclaimed. "Really frightened?"

"Quaking with fright!" I declared boldly. "Especially after you'd
retired. I literally sweated with fear. There! Now it's out!"

She looked at me not at all unkindly.

"Um!" she said at last. "Then, all I have to say is that you concealed
it admirably--when I was about, at any rate. And"--here she sunk her
voice to a pleasing whisper--"I'm sure that if you were frightened, it
was entirely on my account. So--"

In that way we began a courtship which, proving highly satisfactory on
both sides, is now about to come to an end--or a new beginning--in
marriage.

THE END.

* * * * *

_THE MYSTERY STORIES OF_

_J. S. FLETCHER_

"_We always feel as though we were really spreading happiness
when we can announce a genuinely satisfactory mystery story,
such as J. S. Fletcher's new one._"

--N. P. D. in the New York Globe.

* * * * *

THE MIDDLE TEMPLE MURDER [1918]

"Unquestionably, the detective story of the season and,
therefore, one which no lover of detective fiction should
miss."--_The Broadside._

THE TALLEYRAND MAXIM [1920]

"A crackerjack mystery tale; the story of Linford Pratt, who
earnestly desired to get on in life, by hook or by
crook--with no objection whatever to crookedness, so long as
it could be performed in safety and secrecy."--_Knickerbocker
Press._

THE PARADISE MYSTERY [1920]

"As a weaver of detective tales Mr. Fletcher is entitled to a
seat among the elect. His numerous followers will find his
latest book fully as absorbing as anything from his pen that
has previously appeared."--_New York Times._

DEAD MEN'S MONEY [1920]

"The story is one that holds the reader with more than the
mere interest of sensational events; Mr. Fletcher writes in