To those who knew him, and knew him well, this confidential conversation with the woman whose platonic friendship he had enjoyed through so many years would certainly have caused greatest surprise.  That he was a schemer was entirely undreamed of.  That he was attracted by “Winnie Heyburn” was declared to be only natural, in view of the age and affliction of her own husband.  Cases such as hers are often regarded with a very lenient eye.

They had reached the level-crossing where, beside the line of the Caledonian Railway, stands the mail-apparatus by which the down-mail for Euston picks up the local bag without stopping, while the up-mail drops its letters and parcels into the big, strong net.  For a few moments they halted to watch the dining-car express for Euston pass with a roar and a crash as she dashed down the incline towards Crieff Junction.

Then, as they turned again towards the house, he suddenly exclaimed, “Look here, Winnie.  We’ve got to face the music now.  Every day increases our peril.  If you are actually afraid to act as I suggest, then tell me frankly and I’ll know what to do.  I tell you quite openly that I have neither desire nor intention to be put into a hole by this confounded girl.  She has defied me; therefore she must take the consequences.”

“How do you know that your action the other night has not aroused her suspicions?”

“Ah! there you are quite right.  It may have done so.  If it has, then our peril has very considerably increased.  That’s just my argument.”

“But we’ll have Walter to reckon with in any case.  He loves her.”

“Bah!  Leave the boy to me.  I’ll soon show him that the girl’s not worth a second thought,” replied Flockart with nonchalant air.  “All you have to do is to act as I suggested the other night.  Then leave the rest to me.”

“And suppose it were discovered?” asked the woman, whose face had grown considerably paler.

“Well, suppose the worst happened, and it were discovered?” he asked, raising his brows slightly.  “Should we be any worse off than would be the case if this girl took it into her head to expose us—­if the facts which she could prove placed us side by side in an assize-court?”

The woman—­clever, scheming, ambitious—­was silent.  The question admitted of no reply.  She recognised her own peril.  The picture of herself arraigned before a judge, with that man beside her, rose before her imagination, and she became terrified.  That slim, pale-faced girl, her husband’s child, stood between her and her own honour, her own safety.  Once the girl was removed, she would have no further fear, no apprehension, no hideous forebodings concerning the imminent future.  She saw it all as she walked along that moss-grown forest-road, her eyes fixed straight before her.  The tempter at her side had urged her to commit a dastardly, an unpardonable crime.  In that man’s hands she was, alas! as wax.