“C. Q.”; or, In the Wireless House
“Now Sir Penniston had said that any shock might kill mother, and Jim said that the disgrace would kill father, too. He ’s an old man, you know! There was nothing to do he said, except for him—Jim— to shoulder the blame to save father. He said the only person who made any difference to him was me. As long as I knew he was n’t the ordinary sort of criminal he did n’t mind. Father would n’t hear of it at first, but finally on mother’s account he agreed to let me go with Jim. Poor Jim! He s got some trouble himself! I ’m awfully afraid he ’s tubercular. So two weeks ago we ran away to Paris—Mother thinks I ’m on a visit in Scotland—and got married and then took the train to Madrid and Gibraltar. There s a man on board who has followed us all the way from Paris. He sits at our table. Cloud is his name. And we were terribly afraid he was a detective. Perhaps he is. Maybe that is how Jim came to be arrested.”
“No!” said Micky. “I know that man. He ’s not—a detective.”
“Well,” she continued, “that’s the whole thing. Then one morning Jim and I met Mrs. Trevelyan and the Captain, and she recognized223
