The Mystery of Crocksands by Fred M. White

Ellen was more than grateful for the shadows of the night that hid her agitation from the gaze of Christopher Wrath. She was shaking from head to foot with an agitation that she was perfectly powerless to conceal. She was conscious of the trembling of her limbs and the whiteness of her cheeks, though mercifully all this was hidden from the one man whom she had most reason to fear, and so long as she could keep her voice steady, then she would probably get through without losing everything that she had already achieved. It had been indeed a startling revelation which had fallen quite unconsciously from Rollo Bly's lips. He had told her, as if it had been a piece of ordinary information, that his friend Evors, was actually on the Crocksands Estate in connection with a man who was Ellen's own father. It was such an amazing statement that she had almost collapsed, but mercifully she had managed to control herself, and now she was dizzily rejoicing in the fact that Providence had placed in her way another ally in working out the tangle that lay before her. But all that would have to come presently; she would have to wait patiently until an opportunity arose for meeting Evors in a perfectly natural manner and hearing his side of the story, probably from the Australian point of view.

Now, for many years the late Gordon Bland had been a great traveller, usually accompanied by Ellen's mother, but occasionally he had gone to the other end of the world alone. Ellen knew that he had been in Australia, where, doubtless, he had met Evors, and apparently they had become friends. All this, however, would have to wait until the proper moment. But one thing was certain--the Australian was here for some purpose, some sort of reckoning with Wrath, and in a strange manner Ellen's father seemed to be at the bottom of the whole business.