“That your persecution of Major Sampayo shall cease.”
“Persecution! There is no persecution. Are you aware that he even attempted my life?”
“Not for a moment, Mr. Donnington. You refer to the Rua Catania letter. That has all been explained. He was not satisfied that you would keep your pledge of secrecy and intended that merely as a test.”
“Is it possible that he has persuaded you to believe that?”
“Otherwise I should not say it, Mr. Donnington.”
“Well, I don’t, and nothing would ever make me. He forged my name to the letter and managed to let you know of it somehow in his belief that you would deal with me as a liar and traitor. I know the man.”
“So do I. And the fact that he warned us of the raid so that nothing should be discovered satisfies me of his good faith.”
“Very well, then, we must be content to differ about it.”
“You will not forget that he had stronger cause for distrusting you than we had. We believed that you had come here for very different reasons from those openly given—reasons which touched him very closely indeed.”
“Did he think I came after him, do you mean?” I asked with a smile.