“No,” retorted the girl firmly. “We’ll read the Riot Act to Mother and you must marry me at once!” The wind blew cold from the North Sea. It rattled in the rigging, flapped the ensign standing out stiffly at the stern, and whirled the black smoke from the steamer’s funnels out into a dark aerial wake as far as the eye could reach. With a gentle rhythmic motion the vessel rose and fell, while the stars began to pale and faint grey shadows appeared in the eastern sky. Still the man and the girl stood by the swaying lifeboat and talked the things that lovers say. Step by step they went over their thoughts for one another in each successive phase of the dark tragedy through which they had passed. “And that van der Spyck letter,” asked Robin; “how did you get hold of it? I’ve been wanting to ask you that ever since this afternoon ...” “I found it in the library,” replied the girl, “on the desk. It had got tucked away between two letter-trays—one fits into the other, you know.” “I wondered how Jeekes had come to miss it,” said Robin. “But when was this?” he added. “On Sunday afternoon.” “But what were you doing in the library?” The girl became a little embarrassed. “I knew Mr. Manderton was suspicious of you. I heard him telephoning instructions to London to have you watched. So I thought I’d go to the library to see if I could find anything which would show what they had against you exactly. And I found this letter. Then I noticed some one hiding behind the curtains, and, as I had the letter in my hand, I hid it in my dress. When I discovered that Bruce Wright was after it too, I pretended I had found nothing ...” “But, darling, why?” “I wanted to make sure for myself why you had sent Bruce Wright, for I guessed he had come from you, to look for this letter. So I thought I’d go to Rotterdam to investigate ...” Robin laughed affectionately. “Surely it would have been simpler to have given the letter to the police ...” Mary gave him a look of indignant surprise. “But it might have incriminated you!” she exclaimed. At that Robin kissed her again. “Will men _ever_ understand women?” he asked, looking into her tranquil grey eyes. CHAPTER XXVII. AN INTERRUPTION FROM BEYOND Sudden frost had laid an icy finger on the gardens of Harkings. The smooth green lawns were all dappled with white and wore a pinched and chilly look save under the big and solemn firs where the ground, warmed by its canopy of branches and coverlet of cones, had thawed in dark patches. The gravel walks were firm and dry; and in the rosery the bare skeleton of the pergolas stood out in clear-cut silhouette against a white and woolly sky.