To his surprise she showed very little relief at his statement. Her voice had no particular ring of pleasure in it when she replied. It seemed almost as though she regarded the matter as of slight importance in comparison with something else that was in her mind. Westenhanger was frankly puzzled by her attitude—even a little nettled to find that his efforts on her behalf led to so little acknowledgment.
“It’s very kind of you, Mr. Westenhanger. I know I have some very good friends here at Friocksheim. But there are some other people here too. I know perfectly well what some of them think. Even if I were cleared of the Talisman theft, they’d go on repeating other things about me. Oh, I know what they’ve been saying. I’m not a fool, Mr. Westenhanger. I know quite well what that miserable little beast Stickney has been hinting about me.”
She raised her eyes again to the sky-line, looking over the empty sea.
“Oh, I do wish the Kestrel would come!”
For a few moments Westenhanger also scanned the horizon, giving her time to pull herself together again. When she broke the silence, it was in another tone.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Westenhanger. That was ungrateful of me. You’ve been very kind. Don’t take that seriously. You know I’ve got very raw nerves just now, and you mustn’t blame me too much.”
Westenhanger’s smile reassured her.
“Now I’m all right,” she went on. “I don’t deserve it; but I wish you’d tell me just what you meant by what you said just now. How can you clear me in the Talisman affair? Of course I knew all along that you never believed I took it. I could see that in your face—and in Douglas’s too. But proving it’s a different thing, isn’t it?”
Westenhanger smiled again, in genuine amusement this time; and his expression helped the girl in her struggle for the control of her nerves.
“I’m going to play the mystery-man for another quarter of an hour,” he said, “then I’ll explain the whole affair to you. We’ll need Douglas’s help also. But just to tantalise you, I can tell you that I got absolute certainty on the point since I came up here half and hour ago. Now, if that excites your curiosity, let’s gather in Douglas and clear the ground for my explanation. It’s so simple that you’ll probably think you saw it yourself, really.”