I asked her if she had known on board.
"Not until the last moment.

I found out during the fire.

Do you remember when we said good-by?
I was nearly telling you then." Did I remember! The very letter of that last interview was cut deep in my heart; not a sleepless night had I passed without rehearsing it word for word and look for look; and sometimes, when sorrow had spent itself, and the heart could bleed no more, vain grief had given place to vainer speculation, and I had cudgelled my wakeful brains for the meaning of the new and subtle horror which I had read in my darling's eyes at the last.

Now I understood; and the one explanation brought such a tribe in its train, that even the perilous ecstasy of the present moment was temporarily forgotten in the horrible past.
"Now I know why they wouldn't have me in the gig!" I cried softly.
"She carried four heavy men's weight in gold." "When on earth did they get it aboard ?" "In provision boxes at the last; but they had been filling the boxes for weeks." "Why, I saw them doing it!" I cried.

"But what about the gig?
Who picked you up ?" She was watching that open door once more, and she answered with notable indifference, "Mr.Rattray." "So that's the connection!" said I; and I think its very simplicity was what surprised me most.
"Yes; he was waiting for us at Ascension." "Then it was all arranged ?" "Every detail." "And this young blackguard is as bad as any of them!" "Worse," said she, with bitter brevity.