Jack hesitated a second before replying. He realized that nothing could prejudice his cause in Lorna's eyes more than by attacking his rival. 'Because I want to save Miss Bolivick,' he said. 'From what? Tell us plainly what you mean!' 'From promising to marry a man who is unworthy of her, and who would blacken her life.' 'Prove it. You have said too much or too little. Either prove what you have said, or withdraw it.' Springfield laughed aloud. 'Surely,' he said, 'we have had enough of this! You see, after all his bluster, what it really amounts to.' 'Just a minute, please,' and Jack's voice became almost menacing. 'I am not in the habit of blustering. I have warned you to go away from here, and as you have forced me to go into details I will do so. You insist, then, that I lie when I say that I saw Maurice St. Mabyn alive in the July of 1914?' 'I do not say that, but I do say that you are suffering from an hallucination,' replied Springfield. 'You may have recovered your memory, but in doing so you suffer from remembering more than ever took place.' 'You insist on that?' 'Certainly I do. I can do no other. If you are not mentally deranged, you are a---- I would rather not use the word,' he added with a laugh. 'You see,' went on Jack, 'that he is very anxious to prove Maurice St. Mabyn to have been killed in a native uprising. I'll tell you why. He tried to murder him, and it was only by the mercy of God that he failed to do so.' 'Murder him! How dare you say such a thing?' gasped Sir Thomas. 'Maurice told me so himself--told me in India in 1914.' 'Great God, you shall prove this!' and now Springfield was really aroused. 'If he was not dead in July, 1914, where has he been these three years? Why has he sent no word? What has become of him? Who has seen him since April of that year when he was killed?--I mean besides this madman?' 'General Gregory, to whom he reported himself.' 'Do you mean to say that he reported himself to General Gregory?' His voice was hoarse, and I saw him reel as though some one had struck him. 'I do mean to say so. He told me so himself. If I have told a lie, you can easily prove it by communicating with him.' Springfield laughed again, and in his laugh was a ring of triumph. 'It is easy to say that, because Gregory is dead. He died two years ago. A dead man is a poor witness.' 'I don't ask any one to accept my words without proof,' said Jack Carbis. 'Proof will not be wanting. You say that Maurice St. Mabyn was killed in a skirmish, that you saw his dead body, and that you had no hand whatever in it?' 'I _do_ say it,' cried Springfield hoarsely. 'I swear by Almighty God that your charges are venomous lies, and----' But he did not finish the sentence. At that moment I heard the murmur of voices outside the room, the door opened, and a tall, bronzed but somewhat haggard-looking man entered the room. 'Maurice!'