Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/324

Rh to his audacity, leave him in undisturbed possession of the pools to purchase him fair defence upon his other charges.

"We ask you, therefore, under the spirit of our agreement, which he has kept and you must keep, to release Mr. Preston until the latest moment when you must rearrest him, Captain."

"And under the circumstances of an absurd mistake and a great wrong, Captain," the girl persisted, "you should release him and give him opportunity to prove the error."

"Well!" the captain cried, staring in bewilderment from one to the other. "You wish him released," he said to the group of men, "because you think he is Mr. Manling. And you," to the girl, "because you believe he is not! Really," he considered, "I can certainly see no danger to any one or anything, except you gentlemen's pools, if I leave him a bit. And it is within the realms of possibility, as this young lady feels, that I may be doing him a great wrong.

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