Did you meet
Chater?"
"He appeared suddenly at Rannoch, and the Leithcourts fled precipitately
and have not since been heard of."
"Ah, no wonder!" he remarked with a dry laugh. "No wonder! But look
here, Gordon, I'm not going to stand by and let that scoundrel Woodroffe
marry Muriel."
"You love her, perhaps?" I hazarded.
"Yes, I do love her," he admitted. "And, by heaven!" he cried, "I will
tell the truth and crush the whole of their ingenious plot. Have you met
Elma Heath?" he asked.
"Yes," I said in quick anxiety.
"Then listen," he said in a low, earnest voice. "Listen, and I'll tell
you something.
"There is a greater mystery surrounding that yacht, the _Lola_, than you
have ever imagined, my dear old chap," declared Jack Durnford, looking
me straight in the face. "When you told me about it on the quarter-deck
that day outside Leghorn, I was half a mind to tell you what I knew.
Only one fact prevented me--my disinclination to reveal my own secrets.
I loved Muriel Leithcourt, yet, afloat as I was, I could never see
her--I could not obtain from her own lips the explanation I desired.
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