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Page 42
Hearing this, Mrs. Crayford took _her_ opportunity of silencing
Clara next.
"Come, my dear," she said. "Let us lay the cloth before the
gentlemen come in."
Clara was too seriously bent on attaining the object which she
had in view to be silenced in that way. "I will help you
directly," she answered--then crossed the room and addressed
herself to the officer, whose name was Steventon.
"Can you spare me a few minutes?" she asked. "I have something to
say to you."
"I am entirely at your service, Miss Burnham."
Answering in those words, Steventon dismissed the two sailors.
Mrs. Crayford looked anxiously at her husband. Crayford whispered
to her, "Don't be alarmed about Steventon. I have cautioned him;
his discretion is to be depended on."
Clara beckoned to Crayford to return to her.
"I will not keep you long," she said. "I will promise not to
distress Mr. Steventon. Young as I am, you shall both find that I
am capable of self-control. I won't ask you to go back to the
story of your past sufferings; I only want to be sure that I am
right about one thing--I mean about what happened at the time
when the exploring party was dispatched in search of help. As I
understand it, you cast lots among yourselves who was to go with
the party, and who was to remain behind. Frank cast the lot to
go." She paused, shuddering. "And Richard Wardour," she went on,
"cast the lot to remain behind. On your honor, as officers and
gentlemen, is this the truth?"
"On my honor," Crayford answered, "it is the truth."
"On my honor," Steventon repeated, "it is the truth."
She looked at them, carefully considering her next words, before
she spoke again.
"You both drew the lot to stay in the huts," she said, addressing
Crayford and Steventon. "And you are both here. Richard Wardour
drew the lot to stay, and Richard Wardour is not here. How does
his name come to be with Frank's on the list of the missing?"
The question was a dangerous one to answer. Steventon left it to
Crayford to reply. Once again he answered evasively.
"It doesn't follow, my dear," he said, "that the two men were
missing together because their names happen to come together on
the list."
Clara instantly drew the inevitable conclusion from that
ill-considered reply.
"Frank is missing from the party of relief," she said. "Am I to
understand that Wardour is missing from the huts?"
Both Crayford and Steventon hesitated. Mrs. Crayford cast one
indignant look at them, and told the necessary lie, without a
moment's hesitation!
"Yes!" she said. "Wardour is missing from the huts."
Quickly as she had spoken, she had still spoken too late. Clara
had noticed the momentary hesitation on the part of the two
officers. She turned to Steventon.
"I trust to your honor," she said, quietly. "Am I right, or
wrong, in believing that Mrs. Crayford is mistaken?"
She had addressed herself to the right man of the two. Steventon
had no wife present to exercise authority over him. Steventon,
put on his honor, and fairly forced to say something, owned the
truth. Wardour had replaced an officer whom accident had disabled
from accompanying the party of relief, and Wardour and Frank were
missing together.
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