As he neared the end of his brief story she raised her hands again. But they did not seek his. Instead she covered her horrified eyes with them, and she shook all over.
When he had finished he could see she was fighting for self-control. Then, in a flood, the power of speech came back to her.
"Oh!" she gasped, her flower-face white and drawn, in the faint light. "Oh, it can't be. It can't! There must be a hideous mistake somewhere!"
"There is," he agreed, with a momentary return to his former manner. "There was one mistake. I made it, by escaping. Otherwise the plan was flawless. Luckily, a key had been left on the floor. And luckily, I got hold of it. Luckily, too, I had a match with me. And, if there are sharks as near land as this, luckily you happened to meet me as I was swimming for shore. As to mistakes—. Have you a flashlight?"
From her pocket she drew a small electric torch she had had the foresight to pick up from the hall table as she ran out. Gavin took it and turned its rays on his wet ankles. His shoes and trouser-legs still showed clear signs of the scorching they had received. And his palms were cut and abraded.
"If I had wanted to make up a story," said he. "I could have devised one that didn't call for such painful stage-setting."
"Oh, don't!" she begged. "Don't speak so flippantly of it! How can you? And don't think for one instant, that I doubted your word. I didn't. But it didn't seem possible that such a thing—Mr. Brice!" she broke off earnestly. "You mustn't—you can't—think that Milo knew anything of this! I mean about the—the snakes and all. He is enough to blame—he has shamed our hospitality and every trace of gratitude enough—by letting you be locked in there at all and by consenting to have you marooned on the key. I'm not trying to excuse him for that. There's no excuse. And without proof I wouldn't have believed it of him. But at least you must believe he had no part in—in the other—"
"I do believe it," said Gavin, gently, touched to the heart by her grief and shame. "At first, I was certain he had connived at it. But what you overheard proves he didn't."
"Thank you," she said simply.
This time it was his hand that sought hers. And, even as she, he was unconscious of the action.