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me? Why did you go and talk to Dr. Bewley? Has anyone hired you to find out what I have

been doing?”

“Yes,” I said.

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“Who?”

“Your sister, Janet,” I told her.

If I had hit her across the face she wouldn’t have reacted more violently. She reared back in

the seat as if she had trodden on a snake, making the swing rock violently.

“Janet?” The word came out in a horrified whisper. “But Janet’s dead. What do you mean?

How can you say such a thing!”

I took out my wallet, found Janet’s letter and held it out to her.

“Read this.”

“What is it?” she asked, and seemed afraid to look at it.

“Read it, and look at the date. It was mislaid for fourteen months. I only read it myself for

the first time a day or so ago.”

She took the letter. Her face stiffened and the pupils of her eyes contracted at the sight of

the handwriting. After she had read it she sat still for several minutes, staring at it. I didn’t

hurry her. Fear, real and undisguised, was plain to see on her face.

“And this—this started you making inquiries?” she asked at last.

“Your sister sent me five hundred dollars. I felt bound to earn it. I came out to Crestways to

see you and talk it over. If you had been there and had explained the letter I should have

returned the money and dropped the inquiry. But you weren’t there. Then all kinds of things

started to happen, so I continued the investigation.”

“I see.”

I waited for her to say something else, hut she didn’t. She sat still, staring at the letter; her

face white and her eyes hard.

“Were you being blackmailed?” I asked.

“No. I don’t know why she wrote to you. I suppose she was trying to make trouble. She

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was always trying to make trouble for me. She hated me.”

“Why did she hate you?”

She stared down at the garden for a long time without saying anything. I drank some of the

whisky and smoked. If she was going to tell me she would in her own time. She wasn’t the

type to be rushed.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said. “If I tell you why she hated me I’ll be putting myself

entirely at your mercy. You could ruin me.”

I didn’t have anything to say to that. “But if I don’t tell you,” she went on, clenching her

fists, “I don’t know how I’m going to get out of this mess. I must have someone I can trust.”

“Haven’t you a lawyer?” I said, for something to say.

“He would be worse than useless. He’s my trustee. By the terms of my father’s will if I get

involved in a scandal I lose everything. And I’m up to my ears in what would be a horrific

scandal if it got out.”

“You mean with Sherrill?” I said. “Did you finance the Dream Ship?”

She stiffened, turned, stared at me. “You know that?”

“I don’t know it. I’m making a guess. If it got out you were behind the Dream Ship it would

make a scandal.”

“Yes.” She suddenly moved along the seat so she was close to me. “Janet was in love with

Douglas. I was crazy about him, too. I stole him from her. She tried to shoot me, but father

saved me. He was shot instead of me,” she blurted out and hid her face in her hands.

I sat as still as a stone man, waiting. I wasn’t expecting this, and I was startled.

“It was hushed up,” she went on after a long pause. “Never mind how. But it preyed on

Janet’s mind. She— she poisoned herself. That was hushed up, too. We were afraid it would

come out why she killed herself. It was easy enough to hush up. The doctor was old. He

thought it was heart failure. Then, when I came into the money, and there was a lot of it,

Douglas showed himself for what he is. He said unless I gave him the money to buy Dream

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Ship he would circulate the story that I had stolen him from Janet and she had tried to kill me,

but killed father, and had poisoned herself: all because of me. You can imagine what the

papers would have made of that, and I should have lost everything. So I gave him the money

for his beastly ship, but that didn’t satisfy him. He keeps coming to me for more money, and

he watches every move I make. He found out you had started to make inquiries. He was

afraid you would uncover the story, and, of course, if you did, he would lose his hold on me.

He did everything he could to stop you. When he heard Stevens was meeting you, he

kidnapped him. And now he’s going to wipe you out. I don’t know what to do! I’ve got to go

somewhere and hide. I want you to help me. Will you help me? Will you?” She was clutching

my hands now. “Will you promise you won’t give me away? I’ll do anything for you in

return. I mean it! Will you help me?”

There was a slight sound behind us, and we both turned. A tall, powerfully-built man with

dark curly hair, dressed in a scarlet sleeveless sweatshirt and dark blue slacks stood just

behind us. He held a .38 automatic in his hand and it pointed directly at me. There was a

cheerful, patronizing smile on his tanned face as if he was enjoying a private joke that was a

little too deep for the average intelligence.

“She tells a pretty tale, doesn’t she?” he said in one of those ultra-masculine voices. “So