“You didn’t expect us to meet quite so soon, did you?” remarked Andrew Dilks with a quiet smile.

“No, I didn’t,” returned Matt bluntly.

“I suppose you were doing your best to keep out of the way of Gulligan and myself.”

“Is Gulligan the man I had the row with?”

“Yes.”

“Then you are right. I don’t want to get into trouble for nothing. That young lady was not to blame for what happened, and I considered it my duty to take her part.”

“Mr. Gulligan was very mad,” went on Andrew Dilks, still smiling quietly.

27

“I can’t help that. He ought not to have pitched into me the way he did.”

“I agree with you.”