'Certainly I will--to any question.' 'Are you the man who followed us from England, and who arrived at New Orleans the evening before we left it?' 'And was all but murdered that night. Yes, I am the man.' 'Then you are a police spy,' she said in a tone of utter scorn, 'and you have been pretending to be a friend only to entrap us.' 'Not at all,' Ned answered calmly; 'I have nothing to do with the police, nor have I had any desire to entrap you. My name is Hampton; I am a captain in the English army.' 'It is no matter to me who you are,' she said, angrily. 'What is your object in following us here?' 'I might reply by asking what was the object of the two men with you in setting a man on to murder me in New Orleans.' Her face changed at once. 'I knew nothing of it,' she exclaimed; 'I know we hurried away from our hotel, and they told me afterwards that Warbles had recognised some one he knew on board a steamer that had just come in. But they never could have done that. Were you much hurt?' 'It was a miracle I was not killed,' he said; 'as it was I was laid up for three weeks.' 'I cannot believe that they had anything to do with it. Why do you accuse them?' 'Simply because they were the only persons who had an interest in my death, or, at any rate, in my detention for a period, which as they thought would throw me completely off their track, and enable Warbles, as you call him, to place himself beyond the reach of the law.' 'And you have followed us?' 'Yes, I followed you. I had undertaken the task, and when I once undertake a thing I always carry it through if I can.' 'What was your object?' 'I will tell you frankly. My object at first was to obtain the arrest and extradition of yourself and the man you call Warbles on the charge of being concerned in stealing two diamond tiaras, the property of Gilliat, a jeweller in Bond Street, and of obtaining under false pretences a thousand pounds from a gentleman named Singleton. Failing in doing this it was my intention, if possible, to obtain from you a written acknowledgment of your share in the business. I need hardly say that since I saw you I have altogether abandoned the first intention. I was convinced that you were but an instrument in the hands of others, and only hoped that the time would come when you would undo the harm that had been done by acknowledging that you personated Miss Hawtrey, upon whom the most unjust suspicions have naturally fallen and whose life has been to a great extent ruined by it.' 'Why should it have been?' the girl asked. 'Warbles told me that she could have no difficulty in proving where she was at the time.'