Bendigo lost no time in writing the desired letter inviting Robert Redmayne to meet him in secret at one o’clock during the coming night and promising the fugitive, on oath, that he should be safe and free to depart again when he desired to do so.  But, none the less, he expressed an earnest hope that his brother would stop at “Crow’s Nest,” and be advised as to his future actions.  Some provisions were put into the launch and, with the letter in her pocket, Jenny again set out.  She was prepared to go alone, for she could handle the boat as cleverly as Doria himself; but this her uncle would not permit.

It was already growing dusk before she left and Giuseppe drove the little vessel to its limit of speed.

Then Brendon was much surprised.  He had been standing under the flagstaff with the master of “Crow’s Nest,” watching the launch, and when she had vanished westward into a grey, still evening, Bendigo challenged the detective with a proposition altogether unexpected.

“See here,” he said.  “I’ve got a damned, uneasy feeling about meeting my brother single-handed to-night.  I can’t tell you what it is.  I’m not a coward and never shirked duty yet; but frankly I don’t much like facing him for this reason.  A madman’s a madman, and we can’t expect a madman to be any too reasonable if we oppose him, however tactfully.  I should be powerless if he got off his head, or resented the advice I should have to give him, or went for me—­powerless, I mean, to do anything but stop him with a bullet.  But if he’s got to be stopped that way, I don’t want to be the one to do it.

“I’ve promised to meet him alone and I shan’t be telling the poor man a lie, because, if all’s straight and he shows no violence, he needn’t know anybody else is there.  But if I was put into danger, I might tackle him mercifully with somebody to help, whereas if I was alone and he threatened to do me harm, it would very likely mean something I’d rather not think about.”

Brendon saw the force of this observation.

“A very reasonable thing indeed,” he answered, “and in a case like this, you couldn’t blame yourself even if you didn’t keep the letter of your promise.”

“In the spirit I shall keep it, however.  I’ve sworn to let him come and go again free, and that oath I must keep if he does nothing that forces me to break it.”

“You are wise and I quite agree with you,” said Mark.  “No doubt Doria is a man you can rely upon in every way and he is powerful too.”

But Bendigo shook his head.

“No,” he answered.  “I’ve left this question until Doria and my niece were out of the way, for a very good reason.  I don’t want them in this thing more than they are already; and I don’t want them, or anybody, to know that I’ve got a friend hid along with me in the tower when Robert comes.  They understand that I am to see him alone; and I’ve bade them keep out of the way and not show themselves for an instant.  What I want up there is you and only you.”