"You or she must be crazy, Eustace."
"Then it is she. Her message, which I promised to deliver on conditions, was that if you would marry her she would save you."
"Then if you see her again you can refuse her offer. I should not think of marrying her. I have got over my infatuation there."
"And have placed your heart elsewhere?" said Jarman, quietly.
"We agreed not to speak of that," said Lancaster, stiffly. "I am an honourable man, and in my position--oh! it's ridiculous. Don't hit a man when he is down, Eustace."
"I'm not so ungenerous, I hope."
"You are the best of good fellows," said Frank, impetuously, "but my nerves are worn rather thin with all this worry. What are the conditions on which you delivered the message?"
"I'll tell you later. I have a scheme in my head to counterplot Fan and the man she calls her uncle."
"Don't you believe that he is her uncle?" asked Frank.
"No," replied Eustace, decidedly, "I don't. She met him in San Francisco, and he became her accomplice to get Anchor out of the way. I am sure that Berry--or, as he was then--Sakers, fired the shot that killed the man. But in some way the two were done out of this fortune connected with Denham and with you. They brought the boy to England to plot against you, and then intended when you were put out of the way to get the money from Natty. That poor lad doesn't know it, but I believe his life is not safe."