Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/330

Rh "They are bidding it a good deal higher than usual to-night, aren't they?" the girl broke her companion's abstraction as he sat moodily silent after their first few words.

"Yes; as this is the last, they will probably put up over five thousand shillings. There was almost that much won to-day."

"And to be stolen to-night?"

Preston shivered. "I suppose so. He's got away with all of them so far, hasn't he? But let's not talk about it. It's not pleasant."

The girl watched him, smiling.

"Do you know," she ventured finally, "sometimes now if you don't quite make me believe you are doing it, you do make me fear that you believe you are doing it."

"Sometimes, Miss Varris," Preston admitted morosely, "if it were not for you, and if it did not involve my having harmed you, I think I would believe it. You believe some one else is doing it; but you yourself confess you haven't an idea how he does it—if I really am not he. I don't mean how he does the 302