Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/145

Rh watching me and waiting for me to try some 'last and bolder' thing so they can catch me at it. He believes that I am Manling?"

"I said to you a moment back, Mr. Preston," the Englishman replied guardedly, "that Mr. Manling—whoever he is—has so caught me with his coolness and audacity that I'd more than half help him to get clear, if I could. So I shall warn you, since you ask it, that I believe this officer surely suspects you of being the man."

"For, of course, you are sure of it yourself now?" Preston demanded.

"At Ely, I confess, I feared it of you, Mr. Preston," the Briton replied. "But to-day at Plymouth I cannot help almost—hoping it, sir!"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, Mr. Preston," the Englishman leaned toward his young companion earnestly, the Briton's love of a sporting proposition lighting his gray eyes, "that Mr. Manling has since shown himself so delightfully diverting 123