She would not consent to go in the
same vessel with me, and it had been deemed best
that she take a sailing vessel in order to avoid obser-
vation and lessen the risk of detection. I am now
alarmed lest this cursed breaking of our machinery
may detain us so long that the Morrow will get to
New York before us, and the poor girl will not know
where to go.'
I lay still in my berth--so still I hardly breathed.
But the subject was evidently not displeasing to
Doyle, and after a short pause he resumed:
'By the way, she is only an adopted daughter of
the Harfords. Her mother was killed at their place
by being thrown from a horse while hunting, and her
father, mad with grief, made away with himself the
same day. No one ever claimed the child, and after
a reasonable time they adopted her. She has grown
up in the belief that she is their daughter.'
'Doyle, what book are you reading? '
'Oh, it's called Denneker's Meditations. It's a rum
lot, Janette gave it to me; she happened to have
two copies. Want to see it?'
He tossed me the volume, which opened as it fell.
On one of the exposed pages was a marked passage:
'To sundry it is given to be drawn away, and to
be apart from the body for a season; for, as concern-
ing rills which would flow across each other the
weaker is borne along by the stronger, so there be
certain of kin whose paths intersecting, their souls do
bear company, the while their bodies go fore-
appointed ways, unknowing.
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