“And surely he cannot refuse so reasonable a prayer.” “I wonder how he came to suspect Hugh Stavanger, and how much he really knows.” “We shall, I hope, discover everything in time--at any rate, enough to reverse the positions of Harley and young Stavanger.” “Poor Harley. How dreadfully ill he looked yesterday! And yet how brave he tried to be! But hurry up, father, you know that it is just possible for the ‘Merry Maid’ to have reached Malta to-day, and a message may even now be waiting for us.” There was no cablegram waiting for them, but the quartette spent the rest of the day without augmented anxiety, little dreaming of the terrible tidings in store for them. Late in the evening they were all sitting round the drawing-room fire, the ladies working while Mr. Cory read extracts from the “Echo.” “Great Heavens!” he exclaimed suddenly, as his eye lighted on a passage which filled him with consternation. “Surely God himself is working for our enemies.” His words so startled his companions that at least two of them were incapable of inquiring the nature of the new calamity which had evidently befallen them. “What has happened now?” gasped Miss Cory, her face pale with consternation. “Read for yourself,” was the reply, as her brother handed the paper to her. She took it with trembling fingers, but gained courage, when she saw, at a glance, that the news was not what she had feared. “Don’t be so alarmed, Mrs. Riddell,” she said reassuringly. “This paragraph does not concern your son.” Then she read aloud as follows:-- “TERRIBLE COLLISION AT SEA. “GREAT LOSS OF LIFE. “The news of a painful disaster has reached us from New York. The Pioneer liner ‘Cartouche’ reports a collision between that vessel and the British steamer ‘Gazelle’ on the 31st ultimo. The weather was thick at the time of the collision, and the foghorn of the ‘Cartouche’ was blowing. Suddenly a vessel emerged from the fog, and was seen to be crossing the starboard bow of the ‘Cartouche.’ The latter was immediately ported, and her engines set full speed astern. But these efforts could not prevent a collision, and in a few seconds the ‘Gazelle’ was struck amidships, going down immediately, with every soul on board. Some of these were afterwards picked up by the boats of the ‘Cartouche.’ But 28 persons are known to have perished, among these being three first-class passengers--Mr. Thomas Ackland, the Lancashire cotton spinner; Mr. Henry Teasdale, son of the Member for Sheffington; and Mr. Edward Lyon, junior member of the firm of Stavanger, Stavanger and Co., diamond merchants, Hatton Garden.” For awhile there reigned an awestruck silence in the room. “There seems no doubt about it,” at last said Mr. Cory. “No, the information is positive enough,” was his sister’s response.