“Do you mean to say—” he began, but I interposed.
“Listen to me a moment, and be angry afterwards if you like. The liberty, and probably life, of us both were at stake. Kalkov had planned to force the things into my hands; and as soon as he thought you had given them to me, he dogged every movement of mine after leaving you this morning, and came here to get them by force. All this pretence for a journey to Siberia was just a lie; and we got wind of it in time.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I had no proofs, my dear fellow. I wished you to be able to pass your word that you had given them back to me—you did hand them me, remember, and I gave them back under the different cover. I deceived you intentionally, I know—but more than my life was at stake,” and I glanced across to Helga.
“It might have been a gravely compromising matter for me, Denver,” he said, seriously.
“I should have taken the consequences of my act, of course, and my father would have exhausted every resource to put things right. But you see now what would have happened if I had had the papers here. The dummies were taken from me by force, and I was put under arrest; and my wife also.”
“I am sure Mr. Marvyn will see it as we do,” said Helga.
“I wish to,” he replied. “And was it the discovery of the—that he’d been tricked—caused this collapse?” I nodded, and he whistled: “Phew, that’s a circumstance. What are you going to do?”
“There’s only one thing. I must see the Czar, and you must hold on to those papers like grim death till I can take them to him.”
“But with this indefinite charge hanging over you——”