“We’re not much more than thirty-five knots out,” he said. “These fools couldn’t get more than a few knots an hour out of the Rampallo and didn’t even know enough to keep a straight course. They’ve been zigzagging about all night. Never saw such lubbers.”
“Well, let her rip. I must be back at the earliest moment. Get all you can out of her.”
Sampayo’s words had fired me with impatience. A burning fever of unrest had seized me and I should not know a second’s peace until I had assured myself of Miralda’s safety.
The bare thought that she might be in Barosa’s power and that the very act by which I had striven and risked so much to win her, might prove to be the means of losing her, was torture unutterable.
The instant we were in the river I had the launch lowered and jumped into her and shot away to the quay.
A few minutes now would tell me the best or the worst.
CHARIER XXV
ILL NEWS
SAMPAYO’S statement had not only roused my fears for Miralda’s safety but had also decided me not to have any further dealings at all with Barosa. As soon as I had satisfied myself that she was not in any danger from him, I would go straight to Volheno and tell him about the abduction plot and how it had been frustrated.
I could make a full statement of that without in any way violating the pledge of secrecy I had given to Barosa. That pledge did not include either my previous knowledge that he was an agent of the Pretender, Dom Miguel, or anything I had overheard on the Rampallo and the results.
I would keep my word in regard to all that had occurred in the Rua Catania house and in the other house in the Rua Formosa, where I had been subjected to the “test”; and should not give the names of any one whose connexions with the plot I had learnt before my spy work on Captain Gompez’ yacht.