"You should have known it, child," Sir Charles was saying. "I did not use bald words, because I trusted your intelligence. 'A long voyage' was the term I used. It bore one application only in my mind. You must perceive how utterly impossible it is that he should live. Why, if we kept him prisoner, he might escape—ten, twenty years hence even, and yet he still could ruin us!"
"But you spoke also of an island?"
"An island of dreams, Marion!" he replied impatiently. "Come, come, we waste time. You must be sensible!"
She bowed her head before him and appeared to think.
"Come, come," he said again, still more impatiently.
"Wait!" she replied. "I begin to understand."
"Well!"
"Mr. Hume spoke truly, monsieur, you doubted my word, and that is why you brought me here. You think it possible that I have the jewels. Is it not so?"
"Yes to all your questions!"
"And unless M. Hume confesses that he lied about the packet, I must behold his torture and listen to his screams!"