night, when Miles had his
back turned for a minute."

"That accounts for the bill of fare at his hotel then," Mr. Ferrars
said with a laugh. "I have had nothing but lard and bread, sour
heavy bread too, or lard and biscuit, or biscuit without the lard,
since I arrived at Seal Cove. But I think he need not have charged
such high prices for the stuff if he stole it!"

"No indeed!" exclaimed Katherine, with a thrill of indignation in
her tone. "But why did you go to such a place? You would surely
have been better off on one of the boats, or Mrs. Jenkin would have
made room for you somehow, although her house is very small and
fearfully crowded."

"It was part of the programme, don't you see? I came to be on the
spot to stop the leakage, and, having given a pretty good guess as
to where the leaky spot was, Mr. Selincourt told me to lodge, if
possible, in the abode of Oily Dave."

"But you will not go back? Mr. Selincourt would not expect it of
you," she said, a swift terror leaping into her eyes.

"No, I shall not reside under the roof of Oily Dave any longer," he
answered. "But I shall remind him of that locked door, and various
other things, some day when it suits me."

"What are you doing? Are you going to put it down in a book?"
Katherine asked in surprise, as he drew out a pocket-book and began
to write.

"Certainly! You are a woman of business, and must know that it is
best to have facts down in black and white," he answered. Then,
having finished with Oily Dave, he turned to the other side of the
same book, and began questioning her about her father's condition
before his seizure, and entering the answers in the same way.

"You think that Father will really rally again?" she asked, with a
fear lest his former hopefulness about his patient was merely
assumed to cheer Mrs. Burton, who had been plunged in dreadful
grief all day.

"I am inclined to believe that he may recover to a certain extent,
but I should have a much better idea of his chances if I knew more
of his condition beforehand, especially his state of mind. Your
sister says that he had no particular worries, nor anything to
induce apprehension or acute anxiety. Is that your opinion also?"

The question found Katherine unprepared; she winced, then
hesitated, not knowing what to say. He saw the trouble in her
eyes, and paused with the pencil held between two fingers. "I am
not asking from any desire to know the nature of the worry,