at arm's length. She relented somewhat that night, and—she allowed me to put my own interpretation on what she said. She did it to save her husband, as I have since had very conclusive reason to understand. For Mrs. Ducane knows where Ducane is, and she knows that it means very much to me to find him. But I can get no information from her at all. She has fooled me, and shown me where I stand in her estimation."
His voice was stern, almost sad. But it carried the ring of truth.
"Is it not most likely that she has killed him or had him killed? In that case she would, of course, be reticent on the matter."
"Robison would not kill him. Nor would he shelter Mrs. Ducane if she had done it. Ducane was too useful to Robison. He wanted money and power, and I can prove that Ducane was the channel through which he was getting them. He had not sufficient education to get them otherwise, but he had sufficient wit not to destroy the source. In my opinion Ducane disappeared because his fear of me was greater than Robison's power over him, and he made Mrs. Ducane burn the implicating papers in order that, when he was found or came back, he might purchase immunity by betraying the company for himself."
"Is it not possible that Mrs. Ducane believed that she was telling you the truth when she sent you to Lobstick?"
"No. Her actions since have convinced me of that."
"In what way?"
Dick was fighting for Jennifer's liberty and he did not hesitate.
"I have several times tried to persuade her to leave Ducane or to divorce him, and she has always repulsed me. Her mind is centred on him, and she is waiting for him to come back. I believe that he is living, and I have more reason to wish to doubt that than you can have."
Tempest was watching him with bitten lips. Dick was getting the sympathy for Jennifer, certainly. But at what a cost! It could not be possible that he was laying his inmost heart bare here in the court. He must be lying; but he surely felt the position in which he was putting himself. And then Tempest remembered, painfully. This
