once."

"Southsea? Why, we were there all the evening," said I. "What were you
doing at Southsea?"

"Staying with Emma--Mrs. Jupp. The General lives there. I couldn't stick
that boarding-house by myself any longer so I wrote to Emma to ask her
to put me up."

"So that's why you went on Thursday?"

"That's why."

"Pardon me if I'm inquisitive," said I, "but did you take Mrs.
Considine--I mean Mrs. Jupp--into your confidence?"

"Lord no! She's not my dragon any longer. She knew I was going to
Havre--to meet friends. Of course I had to tell her that. But Jaff
Chayne was the only person that had to know the truth."

We questioned her as delicately as we could and gradually the intrigue
that had puzzled us became clear. Ras Fendihook left London on Sunday
for a fortnight's engagement at the Eldorado of Havre. As there was no
Sunday night boat for Southampton he had to travel to Havre via Paris.
Being a crafty villain, he would not run away with Liosha straight from
London. She was to join him a week later, after he had had time to spy
out the land and make his nefarious schemes for a mock marriage. His
fortnight up, he was sailing away again to America. Liosha was to
accompany him. In all probability, for I delight in thinking the worst
of Mr. Ras Fendihook, he would have found occasion, towards the end of
his tour, of sending her on a fool's errand, say, to Texas, while he
worked his way to New York, where he would have an unembarrassed voyage
back to England, leaving Liosha floundering helplessly in the railway
network of the United States. I have made it my business to enquire into
the ways of this entertaining but unholy villain. This is what I am sure
he would have done. One girl some half dozen years before he had left
penniless in San Francisco and the door over which burns the Red Lamp
swallowed her up forever.

For the present, however, Liosha was to join him in Havre. Not a soul
must know. He gave sordid instructions as to secrecy. As Jaffery had
guessed, he had instigated the comic destination of Westminster Abbey.
Although her open nature abhorred the deception, she obeyed his
instructions in minor details and thought she was acting in the spirit
of the intrigue when she enclosed the letters to Mrs. Jardine to be
posted in London. By risking discovery of her secret during her visit to
the admirable lady at Southsea and by ingenuously disclosing the plot to
Jaffery she showed herself to be a very sorry