He asked many questions of a similar nature, surprising me considerably by his knowledge of my movements on that night and since; but I maintained a stolid silence.
I could see his anger rising at his repeated failure to extract any reply, and he sat thinking with pursed lips and a heavy frown. “I will make one further effort. I ask you as a personal favour to M. Volheno to reply to me.”
“If M. Volheno were fifty times as great a friend of mine as he is, and begged me on his knees, I would not do it, sir!”
His frown deepened at this. “Then you must understand that if you persist in refusing, you may as well abandon all thought of obtaining the concessions you seek.”
“To the devil with the concessions. If Volheno or you or any one else in the business think you are going to bribe me with them to do spy work for you, the sooner you disabuse your minds of that insulting rot the better,” I answered letting my temper go. “And now I’ve finished with this thing and want to go back to bed.”
“I cannot take the responsibility of allowing you to leave, Mr. Donnington,” he snapped back sharply.
“Do you mean that you dare to detain me as a prisoner?”
“Keep your temper, sir, and remember that I am a law officer of His Majesty the King of Portugal.”
“Then as a British subject I claim my right to communicate at once with the British Legation.”
“That request will be considered, and if it is thought desirable, complied with. Not otherwise. This is a political matter. It is known to us that you have held communication with these dangerous revolutionaries; you are seeking to shield them by refusing information; and the only inference I can draw is that you do so because you are in collusion with them.”