I bade him good-night a few minutes later and thanked him again for his help.
“Sleep over it all; perhaps it will look different in the morning and you may be able to see how your staying can help the girl. I can’t.” Then with the same kindly, half-quizzical smile he added: “But then I’m only a thin-blooded old cynic and you’re a pulseful young fellow in love. A tremendous difference, Bob. Eh? Tremendous.”
Sleep over it I did not, at least for some hours; but worry over it I did certainly, tossing and turning restlessly until near the dawn; striving to understand this new complication of Volna’s betrothal to Bremenhof.
If he knew or suspected that I had helped her at Bratinsk, I could understand his treatment of me. A beast by nature and a bully by official opportunity, if his jealousy had been roused it was quite likely to render him the brute he had shewn himself to me. It would explain his having brought her to my cell. He had probably wished to confirm or dissipate his suspicion that Volna had been my companion in the flight. Yet he could have done that in a moment by confronting her with either of the police agents. Why had he not done that?
Puzzling over this question I stumbled on what might possibly be the key. He might wish for private reasons to convince himself and yet be unwilling to do this officially. If the police agents recognised her, he might be unable to shield her from the consequences of her act.
This gave me another idea. If he was afraid to have Volna publicly and officially identified, I saw how to bluff him. I could demand to have my examination a strictly official one; and so outplay him.
His object was now to frighten me away from Warsaw by threatening to have me examined as to my part; but if I could convince him that I meant that examination to end in the public identification of Volna, he would be as loath to hold it as I was to face it.
But I must first satisfy myself of the facts behind this betrothal. I recalled her reference to an entanglement; but I laughed at the notion that she cared for him. Yet how could I get at the truth?
This question was still unsettled when I rose the next morning; and then Fortune did me a good turn and put the answer in my reach.
The General looked a little troubled when he met me. “I have had a telephone message about you, Bob. From Count Ladislas Tuleski.”