And they were true! Chayne could not deny to Garratt Skinner a certain criminal grandeur.

He had placed Hine in no peril which he had not shared himself; he had taken him, a man fitted in neither experience nor health, on an expedition where inexperience or weakness on the part of one was likely to prove fatal to all.

There was, moreover, one incident, not contemplated by Garratt Skinner in his plan, which made his position absolutely secure.

He had actually saved Walter Hine's life on the rocky path of the Mont de la Brenva.

There was no doubt of it.