"No, thanks. I'd really rather walk." He picked up hat and coat from the window-seat and turned to the door with an air of finality. "It's a fine night and I shall enjoy it. I'll be round early in the morning—but I don't think Tochatti will give you any trouble for a good many hours yet."
"As soon as she is able to explain matters there will be a good deal to be done," said Major Carstairs rather grimly, as they went through the hall together. "Thank God, we have that last letter as a proof of her duplicity, and by its aid we can doubtless get a full confession out of her."
"Yes." Anstice paused a second on the doorstep before plunging into the darkness of the night. "It will be interesting to hear the whole story. The events are plain enough—but the question of motive is still a puzzling one."
"Quite so. And yet the affair will probably turn out simple, after all. Well, I mustn't keep you if you want to be off. Good night again—and"—the sincerity in his voice was pleasant to hear—"a thousand thanks for the part you have played in the unravelling of this tangle."
"Good-night. Don't let Mrs. Carstairs exhaust herself looking after the woman, will you? She is splendid, I know, but——"
"I'll go and join her in a moment," returned Carstairs quietly. "I'm an old campaigner, you know, and I'll see to it that she is properly fortified for the vigil—if she insists upon it."
And as he looked into the soldier's square-featured face, the honest eyes agleam with love for the woman he had been fool enough to doubt, Anstice felt instinctively that Chloe Carstairs' ship had come at last to a safe anchorage, that the barque which had so narrowly escaped complete shipwreck on the rock of a terrible catastrophe was now safely at rest in the haven where it would be.
CHAPTER VIII
"Well, Chloe, you have discovered the truth at last?"