"Jernam!" he cried; "you in London? Well, this is the greatest surprise of all."
"Indeed, Captain Duncombe," answered the other, coolly; "the 'Albatross' only entered the port of London this afternoon. This is the first place I have come to, and of all men on earth I least expected to meet you here."
"And from your tone, youngster, it seems as if the surprise were by no means a pleasant one," cried Joseph Duncombe. "May I ask how Rosamond Duncombe's husband comes to address his wife's father in the tone you have just used to me?"
"You are Rosamond's father," answered George; "that is sufficient reason that Valentine Jernam's brother should keep aloof from you."
"The man's mad," muttered Captain Duncombe; "undoubtedly mad."
"No," answered George Jernam, "I am not mad—I am only too acutely conscious of the misery of my position. I love your daughter, Joseph Duncombe; love her as fondly and truly as ever a man loved the wife of his choice. And yet here am I skulking in London, alone and miserable, at the hour when I should be hurrying back to the home of my darling. Dear though she is to me—truly as I love her—I dare not go back to her; for between her and me there rises the phantom of my murdered brother Valentine!"
"What on earth has my daughter Rosamond to do with the wretched fate of your brother?" asked the captain.
"In her own person, nothing; but it is her misfortune to be allied to one who was in league with the assassin, or assassins, of my unhappy brother."
"What, in heaven's name, do you mean?" asked the bewildered captain of the "Vixen."
"Do not press me for my meaning, Captain Duncombe," answered George, in a repellant tone; "you are my father-in-law. The knowledge which accident revealed to me of one dark secret in your life of seeming honesty came too late to prevent that tie between us. When the fatal truth revealed itself to me I was already your daughter's husband. That secures my silence. Do not force yourself upon me. I shall do my duty to your daughter as if you and your crime had never been upon this earth. But you and I can never meet again except as foes. The remembrance of my brother Valentine is part and parcel of my life, and a wrong done to him is twice a wrong to myself."