"Alan Conrad has been here, Henry."
"He has? How was that?"
She told him while he watched her intently. "He wired to Buffalo about the watch. He got a reply which he brought to me half an hour ago."
"Yes?"
"The watch belonged to Captain Stafford who was lost with the Miwaka, Henry."
He made no reply; but waited.
"You may not have known that it was his; I mean, you may not have known that it was he who rescued the people of the Winnebago, but you must have known that Uncle Benny didn't."
"Yes; I knew that, Connie," he answered evenly.
"Then why did you let me think the watch was his and that he must be—dead?"
"That's all's the matter? You had thought he was dead. I believed it was better for you—for every one—to believe that."