“No knot that I tie is of that description, sir,” he said. “No, the rascal slackened the bight and then walked away without saying a word to anyone until he came to a house nine miles from the coast, where he was able to loan a suit of clothes--he had his pockets full of money--and the next day he caught a train for the town where a friend of his lived, and there he lay till he caught sight of a newspaper that told him that his wife had married again, and he came to England to see if there wasn’t some money in it for him.” “That’s quite clear; but you haven’t said why you allowed the reports of his heroic death to be printed, when you knew the truth,” said Mr. Liscomb. “I’m sure the lady will see that I did it because I wanted to let my poor sister down gently,” said Captain Lyman. “I wanted her to believe that the man was drowned, and I wanted her to think the best of herself--to feel for the rest of her life that, after all, she had loved a man that showed himself to be a man in the way of his death. But when I landed in England a week ago, and came across the papers with that ‘curious case’ in them, I saw that Lucy was bound to know all; and having picked up with a newspaper young gentleman, he took me, as I told you just now, sir, when we were alone, to the office of his paper and, after a talk with the head boss, I wrote that letter. It was the same gentleman that told me to call on you, sir.” “You did the right thing, and you’ll never regret it,” said Mr. Liscomb. “No, I don’t think I’ll regret it, if it puts a spoke in that blackguard’s wheel,” said Captain Lyman, brushing the cylinder of his silk hat with his sleeve. “You have my address, sir, in case you need me at any time,” he added when at the door. “And I think we shall need you,” said Mr. Liscomb. When Jack and Priscilla were left alone with the man of the law he questioned them as to the result of their interview with the Governor of the prison, mentioning how he had led them to believe what he certainly believed himself--that Marcus Blaydon and the woman who had written to him were man and wife. “And how do we stand now?” asked Jack. “Are we anything the better for Lyman’s visit?” “Not a great deal up to the present,” said Mr. Liscomb. “What I now fear is that Blaydon will clear off without waiting to oppose the petition for nullity.” “Then all will be plain sailing,” cried Jack. “Anything but that,” said Liscomb, shaking his head. “There’s nothing that the judge is more cautious about than collusion. If a case like this is not opposed, he begins to suspect that the opposition has been bought off. We shall have to make the whole thing very clear to him.” “And that is more difficult now than it was before,” said Priscilla; “for we cannot now say that he went straight away from the prison to the woman in Canada. As a matter of fact, he was taken away from England practically by main force; and the woman in Canada was the last person whom he wished to be near.”