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It was, however, insufferable that he should display it in this fashion. "I must point out that I organized the expedition," she said. "Everybody here is my guest." "Did you invite Gladwyne and Batley?" "I did not," Millicent was compelled to own. "For all that, they are now in the same position as the rest. I must ask you to remember it."
"You must have seen that you couldn't save him." "That," Batley answered with a curious smile, "is more than I can clearly tell you; and I might suggest that Lisle's venture is even harder to understand. I don't honestly think I owe Gladwyne anything; but, after all, we passed for friends, and I used to be fond of swimming.
"Crestwick doubled several times; he's stubborn and doesn't like to be beaten," Gladwyne resumed. "I had the same ideas when I was as young as he is." "I've offered to let him off," Batley broke in. "I'd do so now only he's kept me shooting for the last half-hour. As Gladwyne says, he's obstinate, and it's a pity that he's wrong.
Batley and Crestwick overtook the others shortly before the canoe swept into the faster stream at the head of the rapid and they watched her eagerly. There was a narrow pass between several boulders close ahead, which was the chief danger, and the current seemed to be carrying the craft down on one of them. In a few moments she struck and jambed, broadside on, across the mass of stone.
"I felt all along that you'd come to look at it like that!" "But there's Batley; he has some suspicions." "I can silence him," promised Nasmyth. "The man has his good points, after all." "That's so," Lisle agreed. "Still, I'll come straight across to England and tackle him if you fail. If it's a question of money, you can count me in I've been prospering lately." He rose and knocked out his pipe.
Hodges, who up to this moment had had some difficulty in repressing his emotion, withdrew to a short distance to hide his fast-falling tears. He was roused shortly after, by a sudden and startling cry from the old woman. "Oh, sir, she is going! she is going!" ejaculated Mrs. Batley. He found the exclamation true. The eyes of the dying girl were closed.
He had Batley with him and the Crestwicks, who were down before. I think you met them?" "I did," assented Nasmyth. "In Canada they'd call them a mighty tough crowd; they're about the limit here." "I turned round after the car had passed," Millicent went on. "Marple was driving, as fast as usual, and he made no attempt to pull up.
He had looked up to the latter as a model and had tried to copy his manners; and it was chiefly because Batley was a friend of Gladwyne's that he had paid toll to him. For he had felt that whatever the man he admired was willing to countenance must be the correct thing.
The temptation to leave Jim Crestwick to his fate was strong, but his pity for the anxious girl was stronger. "I'll have a talk with Gladwyne," he promised. "That wouldn't be of the least use!" "I think he'll do what I suggest," Lisle answered with a trace of grimness. "Make your mind easy; I'll have Batley stopped." She looked at him in surprise, filled with relief and gratitude.
It appeared impossible for him to descend, unless he did so accidentally, and in that event nothing could save him from a fall to the bottom of the ravine. For a while, they watched his tense figure moving futilely; and then Batley, standing most precariously poised, bent his arm and seized one of Lisle's feet.