“Choose, you”—and he pointed a trembling hand at Helga—“between the mines and abandoning this.”
“I will go to the mines—if you can send me there,” she answered without a shade of hesitation. Her quickness seemed to rekindle his rage.
“This man and woman are under arrest,” he said to the men by me. “Remain outside the door.” As they went out, he sat glaring at us and fingering the packets.
“What next?” I asked.
“You shall answer for your crime, and may thank your God I do not send you with your wife to the mines at once.”
“I don’t thank God; I thank my wife’s and my precautions.”
“You dared to pit yourself against me; and can see the result. Failure!” He all but hissed the word at us as he shook the packet in triumph.
“What you hold there is the proof of your failure, not mine. You had better open it.”
He had been so certain that for the moment he only laughed; but on meeting my look, doubt and anxiety began to steal over his face.
“The papers you seek are across the frontier; you have nothing there but blank sheets.”