“C. Q.”; or, In the Wireless House
and ask you to help me” (he pulled out a slip of paper and studied it) “‘tall, clean-shaven when last seen, blue eyes, brown hair, hollow cheeks, acquiline nose.’ Ought not to be difficult, ought it? There can’t be many fellows on board all exactly like that, can there?”
Again Lily felt the blood leave her face. Yes, It was Cosmo fast enough. Micky had played fast and loose with her. He might even have confided to the Captain that she was a friend of Graeme’s. No,—if he had done that the Captain would never have talked to her so unconcernedly. Micky, probably, had simply delivered the press news, as she assumed was his duty, and had not held it back as he had promised. Yet he had not been a traitor to the extent of repeating to the Captain the interview between Cosmo and herself at which he had been—as she now believed—a deliberate eavesdropper.
“If there is any one on board who fits the description you will surely have no difficulty in finding him,” said Lily. “Where are you going first?”
“Let ’s take a look into the reading-saloon,” said Ponsonby, who wanted as many of the pas-157
