"Answer me, or——" I thundered, lifting the pistol a few inches.
"You will never breathe a word of this?" he implored.
"Answer me," I cried again, with implacable sternness.
"He gave me the privately agreed upon route of His Majesty's drive for to-morrow afternoon." He spoke in a voice low and hoarse, and the sentence was broken by three or four pauses, as if the effort to utter it was almost beyond his strength.
"Give it me," I said, instantly.
"I—I dare not," he answered, his voice no louder than a whisper.
"Give it me," I repeated.
"I—I can tell it you," he said, after a long pause.
"Give it me," I cried, sternly. "I shall not ask again."
He plunged a trembling hand into an inner pocket, and without withdrawing it gave me a glance of piteous entreaty.