The situation was equally clear.

The bent heads and averted faces, the dust collected in the heedlessness of haste, the early hour,--indicating a night-long flight,--all made it plain to him that Van Loo was running away with some woman.

Mr.Hamlin had no moral scruples, but he had the ethics of a sportsman, which he knew Mr.Van Loo was not.

Whether the woman was an innocent schoolgirl or an actress, he was satisfied that Van Loo was doing a mean thing meanly.

Mr.Hamlin also had a taste for mischief, and whether the woman was or was not fair game, he knew that for HIS purposes Van Loo was.