He recognised his very human vanity in the instant doubt that she could be happy with anybody but him.

How dear she was! And then a voice came to him, a shrill, hateful voice. It was Legge’s – he was threatening the girl, and Johnny’s blood went cold. Here was the vulnerable point in Peter Kane’s armour; the crevice through which he could be hurt.

He started to his feet and went up the broad steps of the terrace three at a time. The garden was empty, save for Barney setting a table. Kane and his guest had disappeared. He was crossing the lawn when he saw something white shining in the gloom beyond the open french windows of a room. Something that took glorious shape. A girl in bridal white, and her hands were outstretched to him. So ethereal, so unearthly was her beauty, that at first he did not recognise her.

“Johnny!”

A soldierly figure was at her side, Peter Kane was behind her, but he had no eyes for any but Marney.

She came flying toward him, both his hands were clasped in her warm palm.

“Oh, Johnny… Johnny!”

Then he looked up into the smiling face of the bridegroom, that fine, straight man to whom Peter had entrusted his beloved girl. For a second their eyes met, the debonair Major Floyd and his. Not by a flicker of eyelash did Johnny Gray betray himself.

The husband of the woman he loved was Jeff Legge, forger and traitor, the man sworn with his father to break the heart of Peter Kane.

4

Had he betrayed himself, he wondered? All his will power was exercised to prevent such a betrayal. Though a tornado of fury swept through him, though he saw the face of the man distorted and blurred, and brute instinct urged his limbs to savage action, he remained outwardly unmoved. It was impossible for the beholder to be sure whether he had paled, for the sun and wind of Dartmoor had tanned his lean face the colour of mahogany. For a while so terrific was the shock that he was incapable of speech or movement.

“Major Floyd” was Jeff Legge! In a flash he realised the horrible plot. This was Emanuel’s revenge – to marry his crook son to the daughter of Peter Kane.

Jeff was watching him narrowly, but by no sign did Johnny betray his recognition. It was all over in a fraction of a second. He brought his eyes back to the girl, smiling mechanically. She seemed oblivious to her surroundings. That her new husband stood by, watching her with a gleam of amusement in his eyes, that Peter was frowning anxiously, and that even old Barney was staring open-mouthed, meant nothing.

“Johnny, poor Johnny! You aren’t hating me, are you?”

John smiled and patted the hand that lay in his.

“Are you happy?” he asked in a low voice.

“Yes, oh yes, I’m happily married – that’s what you mean, isn’t it? I’m very happy… Johnny, was it terrible? I haven’t stopped thinking about you, I haven’t. Though I didn’t write after… Don’t you think I was a beast…? I know I was. Johnny, didn’t it hurt you, old boy?”

He shook his head.

“There’s one thing you mustn’t be in Dartmoor – sorry for yourself. Are you happy?”

She did not meet his eyes.

“That is twice you’ve asked in a minute! Isn’t it disloyal to say that I am? Don’t you want to meet Jeffrey?”

“Why, of course I want to meet Jeffrey.”

He crossed to the man, and Jeff Legge watched him.

“I want you to meet Captain Gray, a very old friend of mine,” she said with a catch in her voice.

Jeffrey Legge’s cold hand gripped his.

“I’m glad to meet you, Captain Gray.”

Had he been recognised? Apparently not, for the face turned to him was puckered in an embarrassed smile.

“You’ve just come back from East Africa, haven’t you? Get any shooting?”

“No, I didn’t do any shooting,” said Johnny.

“Lots of lions, aren’t there?” said Jeff.

The lips of the ex-convict twitched.

“In that part of the country where I was living, the lions are singularly tame,” he said dryly.

“Marney, darling, you’re glad to see Gray on your wedding day, aren’t you? – it was good of you to come, Gray. Mrs Floyd has often spoken about you.”

He put his arm about the girl, his eyes never leaving Johnny’s face. He designed to hurt – to hurt them both. She stood rigidly, neither yielding nor resisting, tense, breathless, pale. She knew! The realisation came to John Gray like a blow. She knew that this man was a liar and a villain. She knew the trick that had been played upon her father!

“Happy, darling?”

“Very – oh, very.”

There was a flutter in her voice, and now Johnny was hurt, and the fight to hold himself in became terrific. It was Peter who for the moment saved the situation.

“Johnny, I want you to know this boy. The best in the world.