She looked at him--was it with distrust, he asked himself?
He could not be sure.

But certainly there was a little hard note in her voice which had not been there before, when in her turn she asked: "Why ?" "Because I shouldn't have known," he said in a quick whisper.

"I should have gone back.

I should have left you here.

I shouldn't have known." Stella recoiled.
"There is nothing to know," she said sharply, and Thresk pointed at her throat.
"Nothing ?" Stella Ballantyne raised her hand to cover the blue marks.
"I--I fell and hurt myself," she stammered.
"It was he--Ballantyne." "No," she cried and she drew herself erect.