"Why are you looking at me so anxiously, Elaine?" he asked, assuming a casual tone of voice.
"It is because of Captain Cherriton, Bernard; he has been here to-day, and has been asking questions about you."
"What sort of questions?" John asked quickly.
"He asked me if you had been at Heatherpoint Fort lately. He himself has been down at the Isle of Wight and he appears to have found out something about you that disturbs him terribly."
John made the best effort he could to play his difficult part.
"Well, Elaine?" he questioned, "did Captain Cherriton tell you the particular cause of his disturbance?" He was smiling slightly as he spoke, treating the matter airily. Nevertheless, inwardly he was deeply perturbed. If Cherriton suspected him, and communicated his suspicions to Voules and his confederates, John knew that the position for himself would be one of infinite peril. He had experienced one fortuitous escape from discovery owing to the interception of "Crumbs's" letter to Voules, but he could hardly hope that fortune would again favour him.
He questioned Elaine closely, and learned that Cherriton had definitely heard of his presence at Heatherpoint Fort at a time when he was supposed to be working in the interest of Voules. This knowledge, John knew, would confirm all Cherriton's suspicions the minute it was discovered that "Crumbs" had been trapped and had vanished from the fort.
However, it was not in John's nature to meet trouble half-way, and for the present he was happy to be in Elaine's radiant company. Elaine, for her part, had much to say to him; in the first place, she detailed all that had occurred in an interview she had had with Dacent Smith. The great man had treated her with marked courtesy, and had, without revealing John's true identity, enlisted her services in much the same manner as Mrs. Beecher Monmouth acted for his adversaries, Voules, Cherriton, Manwitz, and company. Elaine had undertaken the work in the idea that she could thus protect from danger the man she loved, whose name she believed she bore.
John listened to her narrative with the deepest interest, and gradually the wonderful subtlety of Dacent Smith made itself manifest. The great man had promised to relieve him of his awkward predicament in regard to Elaine, and the manner in which he had accomplished his promise was simplicity itself. Elaine was to permit—within limits—the advances of Cherriton, and was to pretend to keep her "husband" at a distance! The neatness of this plan filled John with admiration. He felt instantly much freer with Elaine. The delicate moment when she had offered to resume marital relations with him would not immediately occur again.
For some minutes after Elaine had ceased speaking John held silence—a doubt had come to him.