“No! no!! no!!!” he said, putting his hands over his ears as soon as the topic was opened. “Now, Vernon, you profess to be scientific in your investigations. You--you insisted on that in your--er--lecture under the cedar last night. Now listen to me. I promise to thrash this out with you--presently. To--to discuss the thing in all its bearings. But I at least mean to be thorough and careful in my methods. Give me to-day to examine the case. I must cross-examine the principal witness--er--alone. Yes. I insist on that. You’ll have the very best intentions, of course. I don’t doubt it. But you’ll offer suggestions--unconsciously, perhaps, but you’ll do it.” “And you?” Vernon replied. “Won’t you put suggestions into the examinee’s mind, too?” “Hm! hm! You’ll have to trust me,” Harrison said. “I assure you that I only want to arrive at the truth of--of the actual facts, you understand. I want to know what Miss Messenger was doing down there for three hours or more. And if you want me to discuss the thing with you, you must let me get at the facts in my own way. I--I make that a condition. If you won’t agree to it, I shall refuse to discuss the thing at all.” “Oh, very well,” Vernon agreed. And Harrison had gone off to the hotel after breakfast, in the cheerful state of mind of one who has good reasons to hope for the best. Miss Messenger received him in the private parlour of the hotel, a room that evidenced her desperate efforts to alleviate the influence of the original furniture. She professed to be completely recovered from the effects of her adventure, and indeed she displayed no sign of illness. Her engagement to Robert Fell was, it seemed, an understood thing, and she received Mr. Harrison’s congratulations with the air proper to the occasion. Harrison, who had only known her very slightly hitherto, decided in his own mind that she was a very charming young woman, and came at last to the purpose of his visit with a slight effect of apology. “I--I don’t know whether you have heard, Miss Messenger,” he began, “that we had another visitor in the plantation last night.” She opened her eyes at that, with a genuine surprise that could not be mistaken. “Didn’t Mr. Fell or your father say anything to you about it?” Harrison continued. She looked at him with obvious perplexity. “About another visitor?” she repeated. “No, they haven’t told me anything. I don’t quite understand.” “I--I’ll explain in a moment,” Harrison said. “There are just one or two little questions that I’d like to ask you first, if you don’t mind?” She shook her head with a sigh. “No, I don’t mind,” she said. “I suppose as a matter of fact you know all about it already?” “Something,” Harrison agreed, shrewdly guessing at her meaning. “So far as you and Mr. Fell are concerned at least. But--well--I’ll tell you in a moment why I want to know--could you say what the time was when you got to the plantation?”