With that Rhinds slipped away.  Like many another cur, in the hour when he finds himself driven to the wall, John Rhinds had sent for his wife and daughter.  He proposed to escape from the consequences of his rascally acts by hiding behind the skirts of pure and good women who had the strange fortune to have their lives linked with his.

“What is all this that I have heard, sir?” asked Mrs. Rhinds, tears filling her eyes fast, as she turned to regard the Dunhaven shipbuilder.

It was the hardest hour Jacob Farnum had ever spent, and the same was true for Jack Benson.

This wife and daughter had the most absolute faith in the goodness of John Rhinds.  They pleaded gently, eloquently, for these two enemies to have faith in their husband and father.

“You surely don’t believe that Mr. Rhinds was at the bottom of any such scoundrelly plot as the papers are talking about?” asked Mrs. Rhinds, tearfully, at last.

“Madame,” replied Farnum, in the gentlest tone he knew how to use, “I’ll admit I don’t like to believe it.”

“And you’ll come out in a public interview, saying you’re convinced that the whole story is a monstrous lie, won’t you?” pleaded the wife.

Jacob Farnum choked.

“I—­I can’t promise that, Mrs. Rhinds.  You’ll never believe how hard it is for me to refuse you.”

“Then you do believe my husband guilty?” demanded Mrs. Rhinds, in a voice full of agony.

“Oh, I wish I could say what you want me to, Mrs. Rhinds, but—­well, all I can do is to remain silent.”

“Can’t I say something—­something?” asked Helen Rhinds, appealingly.  Her moist eyes turned first on Mr. Farnum, then on Captain Jack.

“Ladies,” confessed the Dunhaven shipbuilder, “you’ve already said enough, as I looked at your faces, to make me almost feel that I am one of the worst men alive.”

“Oh, no, no, no!” protested the girl.  “You are going to prove yourself the most generous.”

Then, turning, the girl caught at one of Benson’s hands appealingly.

“You urge him!” she begged.

“When the chief has spoken I must be silent,” Jack answered, clearly, though in a low voice.

“What can you say to us, Mr. Farnum?  What will you say?” cried Mrs. Rhinds, desperately.

“Madame,” replied the Dunhaven shipbuilder, “all I can say is this:  I will not, of myself make any effort to bring your husband before a court.  I will make no effort to have the investigation carried any further.  That is all I can say.  Jack, if you have anything to say to these ladies that will soften my words, then, in the name of mercy, say it.”

“Ladies,” spoke Captain Jack Benson, looking mother and daughter full in the eye, in turn, “you have heard the extent of Mr. Farnum’s promise.  He is a man who lives by the rules of justice.  You are the only two in the world who could have wrung from him such a promise as you have secured.”