Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/289

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THE "PROTECTOR" ATTACKED

"Of course," one of the voices objected, as the door of the adjoining cabin opened, "he could easily have pretended to have been robbed of the pool to turn suspicion from him and to put up the game afterwards. But the girl—would he have chloroformed and robbed her? You have seen them together and she—"

"Lower!" the other voice warned. "Her cabin is about here somewhere. Did he chloroform or even rob her?" the voice returned then to the first discussion. "Couldn't she have just said she had been to—"

The voices moved away down the passage and were gone. The girl found herself clutching the mattress and sitting up rigidly. She stared about, still dazed at the sudden awakening.

A note had been put under her door. She seized it hastily and read:—

"Dear Miss Varris,—I am writing this to catch you before you can leave your cabin. I will state the plain facts first, without comment.

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