“I shan’t preach. I only wish to help.”
“I—I can’t tell you. I—I daren’t. I wish to heaven I dared.”
“You mean because of—your sister and all the others involved?”
With a quick start he asked, “Is it on her account you ask?”
“It is on your account, I ask.”
He wavered, but with a shrug of his thin shoulders he turned back to stare out of the window again. After a pause he said somewhat irritably. “I’m not in the confessional box, Mr. Donnington. You’ve no right to question me. And after all, you can’t help me.”
“If you think that, there’s an end of the thing, lieutenant.”
“Now I’ve put your back up, I suppose?” and he laughed feebly.
“Not in the least, I assure you. I know that you are in a devil of a mess——”
“How do you know it? Has Miralda——” he broke in.