be comforted.

"If only I hadn't--asked you to!" she murmured.

He made his peculiar, shrugging gesture. "What does it matter? Moreover,
what you asked of me was something quite apart from this. It had nothing
whatever to do with it."

She stood up sharply at that, and faced him with burning eyes. "Oh,
don't tell me that lie!" she exclaimed passionately. "I'm not such a
child as to be taken in by it. You don't deceive me at all, Mr. West. I
know as well as you do--better--that the man who did the swindling last
night was not you. And I'm sick--I'm downright sick--whenever I think of
it!"

West's expression changed slightly as he looked at her. He seemed to
regard her as a doctor regards the patient for whom he contemplates a
change of treatment.

"See here," he abruptly said. "You are distressing yourself all to no
purpose. If you will promise to keep it secret, I'll tell you the facts
of the case."

Cynthia's face changed also. She caught eagerly at the suggestion.
"Yes?" she said. "Yes? I promise, of course. And I'm quite trustworthy."

"I believe you are," he said, with a grim smile. "Well, the fact of the
matter is this. The man we want is on board this ship, but being only a
private detective, I don't possess a warrant for his arrest. Therefore
all I can do is to keep him in sight. And I can only do that by throwing