"'Your husband trusts me--you may trust me. Do you promise?'
"'First let me know what the promises are.'
"'That you will say nothing of what I have said to you to Mr. Davenport, and that, if ever I have it in my power to do you another service, and do it, you will give me another rose.'
"'Yes; in both cases,' I answered. 'You may rest satisfied.'
"I got away then and was very glad to escape. There was no occasion to speak to any one about this meeting with Fahey on the downs, unless indeed I firmly believed he was mad; and now that I had time to recall all he had said, and review all his actions, I began seriously to question my assumption as to his insanity. I took the first opportunity of asking my husband if there was anything remarkable about Fahey. Mr. Davenport seemed a good deal put out by the question, and asked me what I meant. I said I thought Fahey was odd at times. My husband said Fahey was all right, and did not seem disposed to go on any further with the conversation.
"I did not meet Fahey again for a long time--I mean months. He then seemed quite collected; but before wishing good-bye, he said significantly: 'A man may disappear at any moment on a coast like this, and yet may not be dead. Now, suppose I were to disappear suddenly on this coast, you would think I had died, and that Mr. Davenport no longer ran any risk from my being talkative, or you any chance of being called upon for that other rose. I am not enamoured of this coast. I consider it dreary and inhospitable, and it would not at all surprise me if one day I packed up and fled far away, and stopped away until almost all memory of me was lost. Do you think, Mrs. Davenport, that if, after such an absence, I were to come back, you would recognise me?'
"I answered that I was sure of it, and got away from him as soon as I could. Again I spoke to Mr. Davenport about Fahey's sanity. My husband did not seem to care about discussing the subject, and so I let the matter drop. Afterwards, when Fahey jumped into the Puffing Hole in order to avoid the police, I thought to myself that when he talked about disappearing from the coast he was much nearer the truth than he had any notion of.
"All this occurred many years ago, but it made a great impression on my mind, and I have not forgotten a tittle of it. The words Fahey spoke, and the way he looked, are as plain to me now as if it all happened only yesterday. For a long time after Fahey had disappeared, I believed his death at the Black Rock was nothing more than a pure coincidence. Now and then, at long intervals, Mr. Davenport would refer to the matter, but always in tones of anxiety and doubt. I do not know why I got the notion into my head, but gradually it found its way there, until at last I became quite sure Fahey was not dead. On more than one occasion when I had ventured to suggest such an idea to Mr. Davenport's mind, he showed great emotion, and, after a few struggles, either directly dismissed or changed the subject.
"If Fahey had been right about his power of disappearing from that coast without dying, why should I refuse to believe that Fahey could injure--nay, ruin, my husband, if he were to appear and make certain statements of matters within his own knowledge? What these matters were I could not guess. Since I saw you last I have got good reasons to feel sure my husband had no proper right to the money he possessed, and that this man Fahey was aware of the facts of the case."
"How did you find all this out, Marion?" asked Blake, looking across at her with freshly awakened interest.