“I mean to have that evidence. I will adopt your own suggestion and go to your house with you.”
“Mr. Anstruther!” protested Volna.
“Leave this to me, please,” I said.
“I pledge my honour you will run no risk,” declared Bremenhof.
Volna’s lip curled at this mention of his honour. “You will not trust him? You cannot. You must not.”
“Let me speak to you,” I said. We went outside leaving the door ajar that I could watch Bremenhof. “I can trust myself in this if not him. Let your mother leave the house for some place where she will be safe until you can join her. You must both remain in hiding, prepared to leave the city the instant we can get you away.”
“But you——” she interposed.
“Please. I shall come to no great harm. We have taken a risk with Bremenhof to-day; but with the proofs against your mother in our hands and with the papers he has signed here to-day, my friends can put up a fight on my account which, even if he dares to face it, will get me out without much trouble.”
“You must not run this risk,” she protested.
“I have put the worst that can happen even if he breaks faith and arrests me; but I have him so frightened, I don’t believe he will dare to attempt any tricks. I have a way to keep him scared, too. Where is Ladislas? I want him to get a sleigh with a driver who can be relied on in an emergency.”