[Illustration: “You have acknowledged that you are a gambler]
“No, don't think that of me--it was not intentional on my part--I was without money--the Colonel must be paid--my allowance was not due for ten days--I invented the story that I told your father.”
“It was a lie!” Florence choked as she uttered the accusing words.
“Yes, it was a lie, and one for which I have sincerely repented, I told my father, and he forgave me, but said, as the coat was gone, to let the matter drop, that nothing would be gained by confessing to your father as he had been paid, and had met with no loss.”
Florence sprang to her feet. “No loss!” she cried. “How can you say that? You have acknowledged that you are a gambler and a liar--why not finish the story and confess your crime?”
“No, as God hears me, I do not. You accuse me--of what?”
She felt that the crux was reached. “Did you not know when the check for five hundred dollars came back to my father's bank that it had been raised to five thousand dollars?”
The Captain reeled, and came near falling. He clutched at the palm tree which sustained him until he regained his footing.
“My God! And you have thought me the thief!”
“I can't understand.... I met Col. Spencer in Boston--those birds of prey always follow their victims, and gave him the check, receiving two hundred dollars in return. He must have--and yet I cannot believe he would do such a thing. He is in London now. To-morrow I will go and find him.”
“But if he denies it--how can you prove him guilty?”
“Unless he frees my name from such a charge--I will challenge him--and kill him!”
Florence could no longer act as accuser. Her heart plead for the young Englishman who had confessed his error, but who so strenuously denied his participation in a crime. “Miss Sawyer, will you mercifully suspend judgment until my return from London?”
She did not reply in words, but gave him her hand.
When they rejoined the company both Linda and Aunt Ella noticed Florence's heightened colour and the brightness of her eyes.
“He must have explained,” said Linda, “when an occasion offered.”
“I hope so,” was Aunt Ella's reply, and she felicitated herself upon the success of their joint plot.
For some time after rejoining the company, Florence was so busy with her thoughts that she paid little attention to what was going on about her. She was aroused from her abstraction by a sharp voice: