“You must know ‘red-hot’ Barstow, Captain Chayne,” he cried, slapping the little man lustily on the back.  “One of the very best.  You are both brethren of the sword.”

Barstow sniggered obsequiously and screwed his eye-glass into his eye.

“Delighted, I am sure.  But I sheathed the sword some time ago, Captain Chayne.”

“And exchanged it for the betting book,” Chayne added, quietly.

Barstow laughed nervously.

“Oh, you refer to our little match in the garden,” he said.  “We dragged the gardener into it.”

“So I saw,” Chayne replied.  “The gardener seemed to be a remarkable shot.  I think he would be a match for more than one professional.”

And turning away he saw Sylvia’s eyes fixed upon him, and on her face an expression of trouble and dismay so deep that he could have bitten off his tongue for speaking.  She had been behind him while he had spoken; and though he had spoken in a low voice, she had heard every word.  She bent her head over the tea-table and busied herself with the cups.  But her hands shook; her face burned, she was tortured with shame.  She had set herself to do battle with her father, and already in the first skirmish she had been defeated.  Chayne’s indiscreet words had laid bare to her the elaborate conspiracy.  The new gardener, the gun in the corner, the cartridges which had to be looked for, Barstow’s want of skill, Hine’s superiority which had led Barstow so naturally to offer to back the gardener against him—­all was clear to her.  It was the little round game of cards all over again; and she had not possessed the wit to detect the trick!  And that was not all.  Her friend had witnessed it and understood!

She heard her father presenting Walter Hine, and with almost intolerable pain she realized that had he wished to leave Chayne no single opportunity of misapprehension, he would have spoken just these words and no others.

“Wallie is the grandson—­and indeed the heir—­of old Joseph Hine.  You know his name, no doubt.  Joseph Hine’s Chateau Marlay, what?  A warm man, Joseph Hine.  I don’t know a man more rich.  Treats his grandson handsomely into the bargain, eh, Wallie?”

Sylvia felt that her heart would break.  That Garrett Skinner’s admission was boldly and cunningly deliberate did not occur to her.  She simply understood that here was the last necessary piece of evidence given to Captain Chayne which would convince him that he had been this afternoon the witness of a robbery and swindle.

She became aware that Chayne was standing beside her.  She did not lift her face, for she feared that it would betray her.  She wished with all her heart that he would just replace his cup upon the tray and go away without a word.  He could not want to stay; he could not want to return.  He had no place here.  If he would go away quietly, without troubling to take leave of her, she would be very grateful and do justice to him for his kindness.