It was her father.

She had but to set the three faces side by side in her thoughts, to remember the differences of manner, mind and character.

Garratt Skinner was the master in the conspiracy, the other two his mere servants.

It was he who to some dark end had brought Barstow down from London.

He loomed up in her thoughts as a relentless and sinister figure, unswayed by affection, yet with the power to counterfeit it, long-sighted for evil, sparing no one--not even his daughter.