Was it
possible, after all, that the ship had touched at some point up
the coast? The supposition was preposterous. Yet before rejoining
the Brokaws he sought out the captain and found that the company's
vessel had come directly from Halifax without a change or stop in
her regular course. The word of the company's captain cleared up
his doubts in one direction; it mystified him more than ever in
another. He was convinced that Gregson had not seen Miss Brokaw
until that morning. But who was Eileen's double? Where was she at
this moment? What peculiar combination of circumstance had drawn
them both to Churchill at this particularly significant time? It
was impossible for him not to associate the girl whom Gregson had
encountered, and who so closely resembled Eileen, with Lord
Fitzhugh and the plot against his company. And it struck him with
a certain feeling of dread that, if his suspicions were true,
Jeanne and Pierre must also be mixed up in the affair. For had not
Jeanne, in her error, greeted Eileen as though she were a dear
friend?
He went directly to the factor's house, and knocked at the door
opening into the rooms occupied by Brokaw and his daughter. Brokaw
admitted him, and at Philip's searching glance about the room he
nodded toward a closed inner door and said:
"Eileen is resting.
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