"Don't be frightened, April." She was genuinely concerned. "It is really me and not my ghost. You see, I never jumped overboard at all, but simply hid in one of Geoffrey Bellew's big packing-cases. I really could not face those enraged beasts and Philistines any longer."
There was an amazed and gasping silence, but Diana in the middle of the limelight was in her element, and rapidly regained her spirits. She tripped to Clive and shook her warmly by the hand.
"So pleased to see you. I should have come out here long ago, but I got so knocked about in the packing-case that I had to go to bed and be nursed by Geoff's old aunt at Wynberg. Everything perfectly proper, so don't be alarmed. She chaperoned us out here this afternoon, you know, and would have liked to see you, but really it was rather awkward with Ronny and Major Sarle turning up immediately afterwards. We didn't expect to find April here either—naturally. That was a nasty bang in the eye. I begged Ghostie to hide me in her room, and we waited and waited, but these terrible men seem to have taken root here." She twinkled at them gaily, but no one appeared to have recovered sufficiently from shock to reciprocate her pert amusement.
"So at last, of course, I had to bundle them off and face the music alone. Especially as belle Helène told me there was some sort of trouble boiling up in here for poor April."
"I suppose you never realized that trouble has been boiling up for her ever since you disappeared?" said Clive.
"Oh, but of course; and I've been dreadfully sorry, and worrying myself to ribbons."
"It doesn't seem to have interfered with your health," was Clive's only rejoinder. "May one ask what you intended to do to put things straight?"
Diana had the grace to look slightly abashed—only slightly.
"There was nothing for it but to come out here to you and sit tight until the scandal had blown over, while April returned to England. Once she got on board she would have found a letter telling her it was all right, and that I was not dead at all."
"Very charming and considerate too!" commented Ronald Kenna acidly. "A few other people, including Sarle and myself, might have been dead in the meantime, but what would that have mattered?"