The young man stretched himself out. He had dined well and his courage was returning. He asked a question which up till then he had felt inclined to shirk. "What licks me," he declared suddenly, "is finding you two over here. What ever brought you across, Katharine?" There was a brief silence. Katharine seemed uncertain how to answer. It was Jocelyn Thew who took up the challenge. "A little over a fortnight ago," he explained, "I called upon your sister in New York. I begged her to perform a certain service for me. She consented. The execution of that service brought her across from New York on board the _City of Boston_." "But have you two been seeing anything of one another, then? You never mentioned Thew in any of your letters, Katharine?" "Your sister and I have not met since a certain memorable occasion," Jocelyn Thew replied. The young man shivered and drained his glass. "What was this service?" he enquired. "Your sister played sick nurse upon the steamer to a person in whom I was interested, and who was operated upon in her hospital," Jocelyn Thew explained. "He was an Englishman, and very anxious to reach his own country before he died." "I can't quite catch on to it," Beverley admitted. Jocelyn Thew glanced carelessly around. His manner was the reverse of suspicious, but he only resumed his speech when he was sure that not even a waiter was within hearing. "It happened to form part of an important plan of mine," he said, "that a man who was dangerously ill should be brought over to England without raising any suspicion as to his _bona fides_. I made use of your sister's name and social position to ensure this. There has been, as I think you have often acknowledged, Beverley, a debt owing from you to me. Half of that debt your sister has paid." "You haven't been getting Katharine mixed up in any crooked business?" her brother demanded excitedly. "Your sister ran no risk whatever," Jocelyn Thew assured him. "She performed her share of the bargain excellently. It is just possible," he continued, with a glint of fire in his eyes and a peculiar, cold emphasis creeping into his words, "that it may fall to your lot to wipe out the remainder of the debt." Beverley moved in his chair uneasily. "You will remember," he said, "that things have changed. I am not a free agent now. I entered upon this fighting business as an adventure, but, my God, Thew, it's got into my blood! I've seen things, felt things. I don't want anything to come between me and the glorious life I live day by day." Jocelyn Thew nodded approvingly. "That's the proper spirit, Beverley," he declared. "I always knew you had pluck. Quite the proper spirit! Your sister showed the same courage when the necessity came." "Oh, don't bring me into this, please!" she interrupted. "You seem to have been brought into it," her brother observed grimly, "and I'm not sure that I am satisfied. I can pay my own debts."