"Quite so," said Ewart sympathetically. "So you must comfort yourself with the knowledge that it may be a great blessing that she has temporarily lost her sight. Now, I say you didn't faint, because, medically, I know you didn't. For the same reason I say you were suffocating as surely as if you had been drowning. Hang it, my dear chap, it's my line of business, you know. I can't account for it, but there is the naked fact for you." "How does this affect your previous conclusions?" I asked. "Before you tell me what you think brought on this suffocation I should like to hear why you give up your theory." "Simply because no wireless, or other electric current, could have that effect upon you. If you had had an electric shock in any of its many curious forms I could have said it bore me out; but, you see, it's impossible. And, as I refuse to believe that we are continually bumping into new mysteries which have no connection with each other, it follows that if this suffocation was not caused by the supposed wireless experiments, the other can't have been either." "I'm not making the slightest imputation on your medical knowledge," I ventured, "but are you absolutely certain that you are not mistaken?" "My dear fellow," he laughed, "for goodness sake don't be so apologetic. I can quite see that you find it difficult to believe. But I am prepared to swear to it all the same. For one thing, the symptoms were unmistakable; for another, it seems impossible that we should both faint at exactly the same time and place for no reason at all." "You didn't faint too, surely?" I cried. "No," he admitted, "but we might very easily have been suffocated together--smothered as surely as the princes in the Tower. When I saw you were in difficulties I shouted to you. Obviously you didn't hear me. I naturally didn't wait to see what would happen to you; I cleared down the cliff, and sprinted to you as fast as I could. When I came to within about twenty yards of you I found a difficulty in breathing. I went on for a couple of paces, and realised that the air was almost as heavy as water. So I rushed back, undid my collar, took a deep breath; and bolted in to you, picked you up, and carted you here. _Voila!_ But I very nearly joined you on the ground, and then we would never have regained consciousness, either of us. I applied the simplest form of artificial respiration to you, dowsed your head, and now you're all right. On the whole, Ewart, we can consider ourselves very well out of this latest adventure." "What you're really telling me," I pointed out gratefully, "is that you saved my life at the risk of your own. I'm no good at making speeches, or anything of that sort, Garnesk, but I thank you, if you know what that means. And Myra will----" "Not a word to her, Ewart," my companion interrupted eagerly. "Whatever you do, don't on any account worry that poor girl with this new complication. Anything on earth but that."