“I will gladly tell you all I have said if you will accompany us. Miralda is naturally anxious to reassure her mother as soon as possible.”
“I do not wish to do so, thank you; but we shall have a minute or two while Miralda gets ready. And I wish to have a word with you privately, Mr. Donnington, after what you told me.”
“I shall be ready in a minute,” said Miralda with a smile as she went away.
“What are you going to do, Mr. Donnington?” asked Inez. “There can, of course, be only one meaning to your statement—that you were on the Rampallo last night. Are you going to betray us?” She was greatly agitated and made little attempt to conceal it.
“Not necessarily. I have no concern with your politics or plots.”
“Yet you have interfered in this?”
“For the sole purpose of making sure of Miralda’s liberty. When she has left the city, and if she is not implicated any further, and a full explanation is made in writing of the means adopted to force her to do what she has done—a statement which must also include the persecution of the rest of her family—there may be no reason why I should not keep silent.”
“May be?”
“Will be—if you prefer it put more definitely. But that statement, signed by both yourself and Dr. Barosa, must be in my hands within an hour.”
“And Major Sampayo?”