"They cannot be the
same person. That ship out there has not touched land since she
left Halifax. Until she hove in sight off Churchill she hasn't
been within two hundred miles of a coast this side of Hudson's
Strait. Miss Brokaw is as new to this country as you. It is beyond
all reason to suppose anything else."
"Nevertheless," said Gregson, quietly, "it was Miss Brokaw whom I
saw the other day, and that is Miss Brokaw's picture."
He pointed to the sketch, and freed his arm to light another
cigarette. There was a peculiar tone of finality in his voice
which warned Philip that no amount of logic or arguing on his part
would change his friend's belief. Gregson looked at him over his
lighted match.
"It was Miss Brokaw," he said again. "Perhaps it is within reason
to suppose that she came to Churchill in a balloon, dropped into
town for luncheon, and departed in a balloon, descending by some
miraculous chance aboard the ship that was bringing her father.
However it may have happened, she was in Churchill a few days ago.
On that hypothesis I am going to work, and as a consequence I am
going to ask you for the indefinite loan of the Lord Fitzhugh
letter. Will you give me your word to say nothing of that letter--
for a few days?"
"It is almost necessary to show it to Brokaw," hesitated Philip.
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