"I am perfectly sure," said Arnold dryly, "that Major Rebb will take advantage of Bellaria's death to fasten the guilt on Mavis, so that he may shut her up in an asylum, and, by thus preventing her marriage, will be enabled to keep her six thousand a year."
Gerald nodded. "That view does credit to your powers of penetration, Mr. Arnold. Rebb is moving precisely on those lines."
"Quite so. I know Major Rebb----"
"But do you know that he----"
"There is no time to be lost," said Arnold, in a peremptory tone, "as Mavis will be in danger of arrest until she is safely bestowed out of England. She refuses to leave this city until she sees you, and that was why I wired. Come down at once to the Exe, and let us board the barge. Then we can decide what is to be done and you can ask what questions you choose."
Haskins consented; and, after finishing his whisky and soda, he went out with the little man, into the darkness. Arnold leaned on Haskins' arm, as his leg was still painful from the fall of the previous night, and guided him through many narrow and dingy streets down to the banks of the river. A lumbering barge was lying near a littered wharf, and as they approached this they were hailed by a rough voice, which Gerald rightly took to be that of Sammy Lee. The two men stepped on board the low-lying barge, to find themselves welcomed by a gigantic Devonian, with a hairy face, who paid the utmost deference to the dwarf. As Arnold led Gerald down into the cabin of the barge--leaving Sammy Lee to keep watch--he whispered to Haskins. "I can absolutely trust this man, so you need have no fear. Last year I saved the life of his only child by means of the herbal medicine, when the doctors had given her up, so he will never betray our poor girl."
"But if he hears that she is accused of murder--it will be all over Exeter to-morrow?" questioned Gerald.
"He will decline to believe it, as he sees what Mavis is, and even if he did believe, he would never betray anyone whom I wished to shield."
This was very satisfactory, and Haskins wondered at the marvelous ways of Providence, which had snatched Mavis from a dangerous position to place her in safety, until such time as her innocence could be made manifest. It seemed as though everything would come right in the end, despite Major Rebb's boast of his might. Haskins recalled his last words to the man, in which he left the matter for God to decide. And God was deciding--against Rebb and his wicked machinations.
A rap at the cabin door brought Mavis to open it. She was still in her favorite white dress, in which she had fled from her prison on the previous night, but over this she wore a long black cloak with a hood--now closely pulled over her head for obvious reasons. When she saw Gerald, and the tender smile in his eyes, she flung back the hood, as though stifling, and fell into his arms, sobbing as if her heart would break. And no wonder. To learn all the cruelty of the outside world, and to be a hunted fugitive, accused of a terrible crime, was an extraordinary change from the seclusion and romance of the Pixy's House.