"Do I understand you to say, Miss Saunderson, that Captain Seymour is only pretending?"
"You had no business to hear what I said, Mr. Benton," she answered, angrily. "I wasn't talking to you."
But the Doctor appeared interested, and very few of either sex had ever hesitated for long when he became serious.
"You will kindly tell me at once whether this is a joke," he said, grimly.
For a moment the girl's eyes flashed mutinously, and then she laughed—a laugh which rang a little false.
"If you wish to know, it is," she answered, defiantly. "I wanted to find out if Mr. Benton would consider a human life worth saving."
She laughed again, as the four men with one accord turned their backs on her.
"Perhaps it would be as well, then," said Peter, calmly, "for you to tell Captain Seymour that the charming little jest has been discovered, and that he can come down again."
She looked at him contemptuously; then, raising her voice, she shouted to the man above: "You can come: down, Captain Seymour: they've found out our little joke."
But the aviator remained motionless.