It is only fair to repeat it to your face.

I have told Miss Wendermott this--that I met you first in the village of Bekwando with a concession in your hand made out to you and her father jointly, with the curious proviso that in the event of the death of one the other was his heir.

I pointed out to Miss Wendermott that you were in the prime of life and in magnificent condition, while her father was already on the threshold of the grave and drinking himself into a fever in a squalid hut in a village of swamps.

I told her that I suspected foul play, that I followed you both and found her father left to the tender mercies of the savages, deserted by you in the bush.

I told her that many months afterwards he disappeared, simultaneously with your arrival in the country, that a day or two ago you swore to me you had no idea where he was.