“I am very sorry for my behaviour in the garden,” he said, sorrowfully.

“It doesn’t matter,” said the girl; “I wasn’t at all surprised.”

Mr. Tredgold recognised the failure of the new treatment at once.  “Of course, when I went into the garden I hadn’t any idea that you would be in such an unlikely place,” he said, with a kindly smile.  “Let us hope that you won’t go there again.”

Miss Drewitt, hardly able to believe her ears, let him go without a word, and in a dazed fashion stood at the door and watched him up the lane.  When the captain came in a little later she was sitting in a stiff and uncomfortable attitude by the window, still thinking.

He was so tired after a long day in town that the girl, at considerable personal inconvenience, allowed him to finish his supper before recounting the manifold misdeeds of Mr. Tredgold.  She waited until he had pushed his chair back and lit a pipe, and then without any preface plunged into the subject with an enthusiasm which she endeavoured in vain to make contagious.  The captain listened in silence and turned a somewhat worried face in her direction when she had finished.

“We can’t all think alike,” he said, feebly, as she waited with flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes for the verdict.  “I told you he hadn’t taken the map.  As for those three idiots and their harebrained voyage—­”

“But Mr. Tredgold said that he didn’t believe in the treasure,” said the wrathful Prudence.  “One thing is, he can never come here again; I think that I made him understand that.  The idea of thinking that you could tell a falsehood!”

The captain bent down and, picking a used match from the hearthrug, threw it carefully under the grate.  Miss Drewitt watched him expectantly.

“We mustn’t quarrel with people’s opinions,” he said, at last.  “It’s a free country, and people can believe what they like.  Look at Protestants and Catholics, for instance; their belief isn’t the same, and yet I’ve known ’em to be staunch friends.”

Miss Drewitt shook her head.  “He can never come here again,” she said, with great determination.  “He has insulted you, and if you were not the best-natured man in the world you would be as angry about it as I am.”

The captain smoked in silence.

“And his father and those other two men will come back with your treasure,” continued Prudence, after waiting for some time for him to speak.  “And, so far as I can see, you won’t even be able to prosecute them for it.”

“I sha’n’t do anything,” said Captain Bowers, impatiently, as he rose and knocked out his half-smoked pipe,” and I never want to hear another word about that treasure as long as I live.  I’m tired of it.  It has caused more mischief and unpleasantness than—­than it is worth.  They are welcome to it for me.”

[Illustration:  “’I never want to hear another word about that treasure as long as I live.’”]