Darling gazed at him in mingled amazement and perplexity.
"I—I don't understand," he faltered. "You—you've seen Nina, perhaps?"
"I've seen Nina."
"And it was she who told you?"
"She hasn't spoken to me. I am going away without so much as a word from her or to her."
The colonel's perplexity waxed greater. "Will you kindly tell me what under Heaven you're driving at? It's all a riddle to me—a damned—"
"I'll not tell you another word," the other answered. "You must know all I do—and more, I dare say. Why should I add anything to the bare fact that I know where the fault lies, and that it is not in you?"
"Because you've said too much to leave it where it is," Darling insisted. "You must say it. You must say what you saw, and where and when you saw it."
But then Kneedrock laughed again in his grim, bitter fashion.
"You're not my superior officer here, remember," he came back. "I obey no commands but my own; and I refuse to submit to dictation."