He overlooked that his listener was also his custodian and judge--the suspicious arbiter of a belated story told by one whose own actions were in the highest degree suspicious.

His overburdened mind forgot these things in the excitement of hope.

He talked with the candour and freedom of one young man confiding in another.

When he had finished he looked at his companion expectantly, but Barrant's eyes were coldly official.
"A strange story!" he said.
"A true one," Charles eagerly rejoined.

"Thalassa has been walking along the coast ever since in the expectation of finding this man.