I was beginning to understand, besides, that the facts which Mr. Vincott had intended to impart to me were somewhat more numerous than he thought fit to admit.
"The cause--but I can't speak of that. In any case, 'twas his life or mine, and he knew it, so deemed it prudent to take mine, since he had the power, without risking his own."
"But," I objected, "could you trust your seconds? They knew the time, the place----"
"But they did not know I was sheltering Monmouth's fugitives. Lukstein knew it."
"You told him?"
"No!"
He stopped abruptly, and his eyes fell from my face to the ground. And then he said, in a very sad and quiet voice:
"But I have none the less sure proof he knew."
He sat silent with bowed head, labouring his breath, and his hands lying clasped together upon his knees. I noticed that the tips of his fingers were pressed tight into the backs of his palms, so that the flesh about them looked dead.
I leaned forward and took him gently by the arm.