CHAPTER XVI.
COME AT LAST.
Now, as if in all things Tom Thurnall and John Briggs were fated to take opposite sides, Campbell lost ground with Elsley as fast as he gained it with Thurnall.

Elsley had never forgiven himself for his passion that first morning.

He had shown Campbell his weak side, and feared and disliked him accordingly.

Beside, what might not Thurnall have told Campbell about him?
And what use might not the Major make of his secret?
Besides, Elsley's dread and suspicion increased rapidly when he discovered that Campbell was one of those men who live on terms of peculiar intimacy with many women; whether for his own good or not, still for the good of the women concerned.

For only by honest purity, and moral courage superior to that of the many, is that dangerous post earned; and women will listen to the man who will tell them the truth, however sternly; and will bow, as before a guardian angel, to the strong insight of him whom they have once learned to trust.