Afterwards

"You're going?" He wrung Anstice's hand with fervent gratitude. "Well, it's late, of course--but won't you stay here for the rest of the night? We can give you a bed in five minutes, and I'm sure my wife will be distressed if you turn out now."

"Thanks very much, but I must go." The decision in his tone was unmistakable.

"Well, I'll get out the car and run you over----"

"No, thanks. I'd really rather walk." He picked up hat and coat from the window-seat and turned to the door with an air of finality. "It's a fine night and I shall enjoy it. I'll be round early in the morning--but I don't think Tochatti will give you any trouble for a good many hours yet."

"As soon as she is able to explain matters there will be a good deal to be done," said Major Carstairs rather grimly, as they went through the hall together. "Thank God, we have that last letter as a proof of her duplicity, and by its aid we can doubtless get a full confession out of her."

"Yes." Anstice paused a second on the doorstep before plunging into the darkness of the night. "It will be interesting to hear the whole story. The events are plain enough--but the question of motive is still a puzzling one."

"Quite so. And yet the affair will probably turn out simple, after all. Well, I mustn't keep you if you want to be off. Good night again--and"--the sincerity in his voice was pleasant to hear--"a thousand thanks for the part you have played in the unravelling of this tangle."

"Good-night. Don't let Mrs. Carstairs exhaust herself looking after the woman, will you? She is splendid, I know, but----"

"I'll go and join her in a moment," returned Carstairs quietly. "I'm an old campaigner, you know, and I'll see to it that she is properly fortified for the vigil--if she insists upon it."

And as he looked into the soldier's square-featured face, the honest eyes agleam with love for the woman he had been fool enough to doubt, Anstice felt instinctively that Chloe Carstairs' ship had come at last to a safe anchorage, that the barque which had so narrowly escaped complete shipwreck on the rock of a terrible catastrophe was now safely at rest in the haven where it would be.