Then she turned to the captain, and, with a gesture almost of command, said:
"Will you tell Mr. Thaxton?"
Mr. Thaxton took her hand.
"Wait a while," he said. "You distress yourself, Miss Violet, perhaps without adequate cause. What has happened? Come, come!"
And the old man patted her hand, soothingly, though nothing of his acuteness abated.
Then he led Violet to a seat, and himself drew a little apart, with the captain, who had all this time been, so to speak, measuring his man.
"What has happened?" asked Mr. Thaxton. "Nothing nearly concerning the family, I hope?"
"N—o," said the captain, gravely, and then he placed Mr. Thaxton in possession of the facts which were generally known.
A body had been found at the foot of the cliff.
The corpse had been identified as the body of the captain's late valet, Jem Starling.