"He did; and he always said that Michael Pendean was a 'shirker' and
a coward. He also assured me that he had done with his niece and
should never forgive her for marrying her husband. But that was
before Bob went to Princetown, six days ago. From there he wrote
quite a different story. He had met them by chance and he found that
Mr. Pendean had not shirked but done good work in the war and got
the O.B.E. After that discovery, Bob changed and he was certainly on
the best of terms with the Pendeans before this awful thing
happened. He had already made them promise to come here for the
regattas."

"You have neither seen nor heard of the captain since?"

"Indeed, no. My last letter, which you can see, came three days ago.
In it he merely said he would be back yesterday and meet me to bathe
as usual. I went to bathe and looked out for him, but of course he
didn't come."

"Tell me a little about him, Miss Reed," said Mark. "It is good of
you to give me this interview, for we are up against a curious
problem and the situation, as it appears at present, may be illusive
and quite unlike the real facts. Captain Redmayne, I hear, had
suffered from shell shock and a breath of poison gas also. Did you
ever notice any signs that these troubles had left any mark upon
him?"

"Yes," she answered. "We all did. My mother was the first to point
out that Bob often repeated himself. He was a man of great good
temper, but the war had made him rough and cynical in some respects.
He was impatient, yet, after he quarrelled or had a difference with