The little party that lay in wait for the Alderney steamer in old Jack Guille's boat off the Eperquerie, next morning, was eminently lacking in the vivacity that usually distinguishes such parties when the sea is smooth and the sky is blue. In fact, when they got on board, the Captain decided in his own mind that they must all have quarrelled before starting. There was no sign of anything of the kind about them now, it is true, but that might just be their good manners. For English people are not like the Sark and Guernsey folk, who, when they do quarrel, let all the world know about it. These four had apparently little to say to one another and less to anyone else. If they had been going to a funeral they could hardly have been more reserved. And to something very like a funeral they were going, with the added anxiety of very grave doubts as to the result of their visit. They had had no difficulty in persuading the elder ladies that Alderney was not for them. The steep path down to the Eperquerie landing, and the tumbling about in a small boat until the steamer came, did not greatly appeal to them. Moreover, Lady Elspeth's clear eyes had noticed the signs of their clouding, in spite of their efforts after naturalness, for to experienced eyes there is nothing so unnatural as the attempt to be natural. If Mrs. Pixley noticed nothing it was probably because her faculties had not yet fully recovered from the shock to which they had been subjected. If she noticed she said nothing, having no desire, perhaps, to add to the weight of her already heavy burden. "Now, my boy, what is it?" Lady Elspeth asked, when she had persuaded Graeme to take her for a stroll in the evening, under plea of cramp through overmuch sitting. "Jeremiah Pixley is in Alderney and has written to Charles begging his help to get on his way." "Ah! And what are you going to do about it?". Graeme outlined their ideas on the matter. "He's an old rascal," said Lady Elspeth softly. "I doubt very much if you'll get anything out of him." "Can you suggest any better way of dealing with the matter?" "I don't know that I can at the moment, but I doubt if you'll get any satisfaction out of him. He'll stick to all he can, and his promise of restitution is all bunkum, I should fear." "And would you help him to get away in any case?" "Personally, I think a course of penal servitude would be of the greatest service to him. But, for Charles's sake and his mother's, the sooner the whole matter is buried the better, and so I should be sorry to hear of him being taken. It would only revive the scandal." "That's just what we all feel;" and he saw that the problem of Jeremiah Pixley was too much even for Lady Elspeth.