"Cares for me!" Despite her determination not to betray herself Rada could not help interrupting. "When he wants to be the one to rob me of my victory! If Pollux wins he will laugh at and mock me, because I laughed at and mocked him once: he will say that I challenged him to win a Derby before me, challenged him unfairly because I already had a horse in training. He wants to humiliate me--that's what he is playing for--and you say he cares!" Rada poured out her words tempestuously, though they were spoken in an undertone lest they should be overheard. "Oh, how can I explain?" Poor Pierce was conscious by now of the slough into which he had blundered. He was quite unable to extricate himself, and only made matters worse by his attempts. "Mostyn loves you, Miss Armitage," he faltered. "It's for your sake that he wants Pollux to win; for your sake and----" "For my sake!" Rada broke into a harsh laugh. "When he knows what this Derby means to me, that it is the ambition of my life! For my sake!" "But it is!" Pierce had gone too far to withdraw. "I tell you Mostyn loves you. But unless Pollux wins"--he faltered and hesitated. Mostyn had bidden him keep the secret, from Rada most especially. For what would happen if she knew? The girl would be robbed of all her happiness in victory, should victory be hers. How could she rejoice knowing that her triumph meant the ruin of another? "Yes," she prompted, "unless Pollux wins?" She had suddenly imagined that she understood the situation. Perhaps it was because Mostyn saw ruin staring him in the face that he had not ventured to speak to her again of his love. He had been foolishly spendthrift: she had scolded him often enough for his extravagance. What if he was making his last plunge--upon this Derby--and, if successful, meant to claim her? She was trembling with excitement. She wanted to know everything and that immediately. "Go on!" she cried petulantly. "What will happen if Pollux loses?" "I'm a blundering fool," stammered Pierce. "It's a secret, Miss Armitage." "A secret I mean to share," she said decidedly. Again she stamped her foot. "Tell me! I must know everything--I must." The explanation that might have followed here--for Pierce saw no means of escape--was interrupted by a general movement in the direction of the coach. The party was ready to start. "You must sit by me and tell me about it as we go down," Rada commanded. There was a slight difficulty, in consequence of this, when it came to allotting seats upon the coach. Rada stuck close to Pierce, in spite of all the efforts of Lord Caldershot to intervene. The latter found himself at last, very much to his chagrin, settled on the back seat in the company of a simpering young lady not at all to his taste, while on the other side he had the morose Captain Armitage, who, as a matter of fact, hardly uttered a word during the whole of the journey down.