"Yes, I've been here for the last two hours. What part of your grounds was it? Would you like to have me go over there and look around?" "No, thank you. You are very kind, but I am sure it won't be necessary. He has gone by now, of course." "I should be glad to try." Then, noticing her glance at his limp, he added: "Oh, I can navigate after a fashion, well enough for a short cruise like that. But it is funny that, if there was a tramp there such a little while ago, I didn't run afoul of him. Why, I was over there myself." "You were?" "Yes, you see, I----" He stopped short. He had been about to tell of his short walk and how he had inadvertently trespassed within the Fair Harbor boundaries. But before he could speak the words a sudden and amazing thought flashed upon him. "Eh?" he cried. "Why--why, I wonder----" His visitor was leaning forward. Judging by her expression, she, too, was experiencing a similar sensation of startled surmise. "Why----" repeated the captain. "Oh!" exclaimed the young woman. "You don't suppose----" "It couldn't possibly be that----" "Wait a minute, please. Just a minute." Sears held up his hand. "Where did those folks of yours see this tramp? Were they in a--in a kind of roundhouse--summer-house, you might call it?" "Why, yes. They were in the Eyrie." "That's it, the Eyrie. And is one of the--er--ladies rather tall and narrow in the beam, gray-haired, and speaks quick and--school-marmy?" "Yes. That is Miss Elvira Snowden." "Of course--Elvira. That's what the other one called her. And she--the other one--is short and broad and--and hard of hearin'?" "Yes. Her name is Aurora Chase. Is it possible that you----" "Just a second more. Has this short one got a--a queer sort of hair rig? Black as tar and with kind of--of wrinkles in it?" She smiled at this description. "Yes," she said. "Do you mean that _you_ are----" "The tramp? I guess likely I am. I was over on your premises just a little while ago and met those two ladies." "But you can't be. They said he--the tramp--was a dreadful, rough man, with a club and--and----" "Here's the club." Captain Kendrick exhibited his cane. "And these lame legs of mine would account for that slouchy walk they told you about. I guess there isn't much doubt that I am the tramp. But I'm sorry if they thought I insulted 'em. I surely didn't mean to." He described the meeting by the Eyrie and repeated the dialogue as he remembered it. "So you see," he said, in conclusion, "that's all there is to it. I suppose that hint of mine about bein' tempted to run off with one of 'em is the nearest to an insult of any of it. Perhaps I shouldn't have said it, but--but it popped into my head and I couldn't hold it back. I didn't really mean it," he added solemnly. "I wouldn't have run off with one of 'em for the world."