A diversion was created by the approach of a motor-launch with a party of masked entertainers, while the string quartette in the bows played a popular air. As it came near it slowed down, then stopped alongside. “Oh, those people are splendid,” Jessica exclaimed. “They were here yesterday and played for us during lunch. Louie,” she turned to Stapleton, “make them give us an entertainment now.” The entertainment lasted a long time, so that Preston and Yootha were unable to leave the houseboat, as they had been about to do when the launch came in sight. When at last the entertainment ended they sought out their hostess. “But surely you are not going?” Jessica exclaimed, holding Yootha’s hand. “We are only just beginning to enjoy ourselves! Can’t you both stay to dinner? We want to drink your health, you know,” and she laughed in her deep and musical voice. “So good of you,” Yootha answered, though all the while her instinct told her that beneath this show of friendship and hospitality there lurked some sinister motive, “but we have a friend dining with us on our boat.” “Ah, in that case I suppose there is nothing further to be said,” Jessica replied. “But I am very disappointed. Come to lunch to-morrow, will you? And you too, Captain Preston, make her bring you with her.” But Preston excused himself on the plea that he expected friends to lunch. “Sometimes, though, friends don’t turn up,” Jessica said inconsequently. “If they don’t, mind you come, both of you.” A few minutes after they had gone a man rowed up rapidly in a dinghy. “Can I speak to Captain Preston, please?” he asked. “I am his servant. I have just come from his house-boat.” He had addressed La Planta, who, leaning against the rail, had been watching him approach. “Is it anything important?” La Planta inquired, eyeing the man coldly. “It is.” “Well, Captain Preston and Miss Hagerston have just left. You must have passed them.” “Have they gone back to the boat?” “I expect so. They went down stream.” Borne along the water came the strains of a revue waltz played further down the river by the string quartette. Preston’s servant pulled the dinghy round, then started to row back. And La Planta, blowing rings of cigarette smoke, watched him, with a look of amusement, growing smaller and smaller in the distance. At last he straightened himself. Most of the guests had now left. Barely a dozen remained. Some one touched his elbow, and he turned. “Well?” Stapleton said. La Planta nodded. “Quite satisfactory,” he answered. “And when will he receive it?” La Planta glanced down at his wrist-watch. “He may have got it already. I am glad that fellow missed him, though I can’t think how he managed to. What fools people like Preston and that girl of his and Cora Hartsilver and the rest of them are to pit their wits against ours!” “Preston is no fool, Archie. Nor, for that matter, is Cora.”