"Oh, hang!" he said gruffly. "There are the bills Brabazon gave me. By God, you've earned them!" Cara stretched her hand out slowly and touched the packet with hesitating fingers. "Do you mean this, Brett?" "Certainly I mean it." She stared at him almost incredulously. "I believe you're--sorry," she said slowly. But in that she miscalculated. Brett would be an unrepentant sinner to the end of his days. He laughed and shook his head. "Not in the way you mean. Frankly and honestly--Oh, yes"--catching the faint quizzical gleam in her eyes--"I can be both when I want to. The Devil quoting Scripture, you know! Frankly, then, I'm merely sorry that my plan miscarried. It was a splendid plan! Its only fault was that it didn't succeed.... But I know when I'm beaten. And you've beaten me." A few minutes later they stood together on the deck, waiting for the dinghy to come alongside. "Good-night, Brett," she said, holding out her hand. He lifted it to his lips with audacious grace. "It will be a bad night--thanks to you!" he returned with a last flash of mocking humour. CHAPTER XXXIII THE VISION FULFILLED Ann opened her next morning's mail with nervously eager fingers. A couple of tradesmen's bills, an advertisement for somebody's infallible cure-all, and a letter from Robin saying that he would reach home the following day--that was all. Not a line from Brett. Nothing in explanation of his last evening's telegram. There is a wise old saw which asserts that "no news is good news," but Ann could extract no comfort from it. Such hackneyed sayings did not take into consideration people of Brett Forrester's temperament, she reflected bitterly. Something had occurred to prevent the carrying out of his plans for last night, but not for one moment did she imagine that he would allow anything to divert him permanently from his intention of compelling her to buy Tony's freedom on the terms he had already fixed. That fact must still be faced, and the absence of any word from Brett this morning increased illimitably the sense of strain under which she was labouring. Last evening she had keyed herself up to the required pitch for the ordeal which awaited her. And now the whole agony and terror would have to be gone through again! She wandered restlessly from the house to the garden and then back again, her nerves ragged-edged with suspense. If she could only know what had occurred last night to prompt that wire, what Brett now proposed, what further troubles there were in store, she felt she could have borne it better. She was never afraid to face definite difficulties. It was this terrible inaction and uncertainty which she found so unendurable.