"I shall bring him back in an hour or so. You will see," I said cheerfully.
"I pray with all my heart you will. But where are you going?"
"I think I know where to find him; but I must not stay to tell you any more. Keep a stout heart for that hour or so, and all will be well."
I put all the cheering confidence I could into my tone and manner, but it was of little avail. "I wish I could go with you," she cried wistfully. "If you do not return soon I shall be fit to do something desperate. I cannot tell you how this suspense tortures me. It was all I could do to prevent myself from coming after you just now."
"You cannot do anything but wait, dearest. Wait and trust. It will all come right."
But although I had spoken so confidently to Althea, I was very far from feeling so; and as I hurried through the deserted streets I wished the Baron had been at Jerusalem and all his mad-brained schemes and cause and associates with him before he had come to plunge us all into this unsavoury mess.
There was, of course, only one place in the whole city where I could go in search of him--the wharf of W. Mischen; and it was no more than a bare possibility that he or any one else would be there at that time of night.
Moreover, if I did succeed in finding him there it was anything but clear how I could get him away. Already he entertained the gravest suspicions of me; and the moment he spoke to any of his infernal associates, all the fairy tales I had told him would be exposed.
He would show the bomb which I had given to him; and it needed no gift of prophecy to understand the feeling which would be aroused against me. Every man in the crowd would be itching to slit my throat or put a bullet into me.
There was just one chance in a million in my favour--that he had set out to blow up the "warship" by himself. But even that would not help me; as I should most certainly be unable to trace his movements.