174 T^^^^ ^^«/ Charlotte. 



stant she forgot it. A distant shout, unmistakably uttered 

 by Hawkins, came thinly to them across the water, and in 

 another second or two the noise of oars could be distinctly 

 heard. The sound advanced steadily. 



** Show a light there on the pier ! " called out a voice that 

 was not Hawkins'. 



Cursiter struck a match, a feeble illuminant that made 

 everything around invisible except the faces of the group on 

 the pier, and by the time it had been tossed, like a falling 

 star, into the tarry blackness of the water, the boat was within 

 conversational distance. 



" Is Miss Fitzpatrick there ? " demanded Lady Dysart. 



" She is," said Lambert's voice. 



*' What have you done with the launch ? " shouted 

 Cursiter, in a tone that made his subaltern quake. 



" She's all right," he made haste to reply. *' She's on 

 that mud-shallow off Curragh Point, and Lambert's man is 

 on board her now. Lambert saw us aground there from his 

 window, and we were at her for an hour trying to get her off, 

 and then it got so dark, we thought we'd better leave her 

 and come on. She's all right, you know." 



" Oh," said Captain Cursiter, in, as Hawkins thought tc 

 himself, a deuced disagreeable voice. 



The boat came up alongside of the pier, and in the 

 hubbub of inquiry that arose, Francie was conscious of a 

 great sense of protection in Lambert's presence, angry 

 though she knew he was. As he helped her out of the 

 boat, she whispered tremulously : 



" It was awfully good of you to come." 



He did not answer, and stepped at once into the boat 

 again. In another minute the necessary farewells had been 

 made, and he, Cursiter, and Hawkins, were rowing back tc 

 the launch, leaving Francie to face her tribunal alone. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



It was noon on the following day — a soaking, windy noon. 

 Francie felt its fitness without being aware that she did so, 

 as she knelt in front of her trunk, stuffing her few fineries 

 into it with unscientific recklessness, and thinking with terror 



