"When did you find Lance talking to Shanks?" Bernard asked, and smiled rather curiously when Dick replied, for he remembered his visit to the lawyer. Lance had known about the visit.
"Ah," he said, "I begin to see a light! But go on, Dick; I expect you have now cleared the ground."
"Dick has missed his vocation; he ought to have been a barrister," Mordaunt remarked.
"I'm trying to be just to you and Jim," Dick resumed. "I have shirked my duty; I trusted you, Lance, and when I found you out it hurt."
"You trusted me until you found Jim was the better man! Well, it looks as if others had copied your example," Mordaunt rejoined.
Bernard made an impatient sign and Dick resumed: "I've been leading to the night Jim and Carrie were nearly drowned. You all know I was on the sands. Well, I came to Jim's punt when he had left her and gone to look for the geese." Dick paused and taking out a plan that he put on the table, addressed Jim: "You dragged the punt up the bank and carried out the anchor. Is this sketch of the spot accurate?"
Mordaunt moved abruptly, but controlled himself and stood very quiet; Jim picked up the paper and his face got dark.
"So far as I remember, it is accurate."
"Did you pull the punt down again, or move the anchor?"
"I did not. I was puzzled when I found her floating and the anchor covered."