"Oh, crimini fish skins!" he ejaculated. "I see it now. What a fool I have been! That little chirrup of a girl harping on my look of her father—old Sylvester's visits to the prison—I see it now, I see it now. I thank you, ma'am," and, springing up, he seized Miss Gastonguay's hand and shook it warmly.
"Get out with you!" she said. "Do you want to call attention to us?" and yet she was not annoyed, but rather gratified, and watched with pleasure the rapidity with which his mind ran back along the thread of recollection she had given him.
"Louis running away—Louis missing—Louis said to be dead, not dead but living, and cutting up as usual. Under Sylvester's wide-spread wing—Justin's darling—Justin's father-in-law. All very natural. Thank you, ma'am, thank you. I'm glad Derrice dropped that watch. Tell me some more,—tell me some more."
She sat down beside him on the bench, and relieved her overburdened heart by talking freely. They seemed an incongruous couple, the grizzled lady in her broadcloth suit and the sailor in his blue serge, yet their relationship drew them together. In former days she would have repudiated it with scorn; now her enlarged and wandering sympathies went out to this man with cousinly interest.
She talked freely to him of her fears with regard to her brother, of her failing health, if means might be taken to protect Chelda and Derrice from the knowledge of their connection with the criminal, until at last, warned of the flight of time by the sun dipping lower behind the pines, she rose. "We must go," she said, regretfully, "but remember, I want to see more of you. I have not much longer to live. The doctors say I am mistaken, but I don't believe them. I know what this thumping, fluttering heart means. Come often to French Cross while I am here,—you and your wife, of course."
CHAPTER XXVII.
H. ROBINSON AND HIS REVELATION.
Chelda, meanwhile, was having her interview with H. Robinson.
Captain White had not told her that the Bangor and Rossignol train was two hours late. She had only found that out by telephoning to the station.