“I know,” he said. “I thought of those things, too.”
“It flashed on me,” she went on, “that if I could find the man, I might be able to buy him off. I didn’t believe that he would dare to injure me. There are reasons why he should not. My car had been taken in, but I had them bring it out, and I told them—well, that part doesn’t matter. Enough that I made an excuse, and went out with the car.”
“You should have taken someone with you.”
“There was the likelihood that the Japanese would run, if I had a companion. As long as I was alone, he might be willing to parley, I thought. At least, he would not be afraid of me alone. So I went north on Sheridan Road to the upper end of the lower campus. There is a crossroad there, you remember, cutting through to the lake, and I turned in. I left the car near a house that is there, and walked on to the edge of the bluff.
“Moored to a breakwater below was a boat, and a man was standing near her. I called out to him, asking what time it was. He answered, ‘Don’ know,’ and I knew him at once to be foreign and, probably, Japanese. So I went down toward him.
“When he saw that I was coming, he got into the boat. He seemed to be frightened and hurried, and I inferred that he was about to cast off, and I called out that I was alone. At that he waited, but he did not get out of the boat, and I was standing at the edge of the breakwater, just above him, before he actually seemed to recognize me.”
“Did you know him?” asked Orme.
“I never saw him before to my knowledge; but he made an exclamation which indicated that he knew me.”
“What did he do then?”
“I told him that I wished to talk to him about the papers. His answer was that, if I would step down into the boat, he would talk. He said that he would not leave the boat, and added that he was unwilling to discuss the matter aloud. And I was foolish enough to believe his excuses. If he wished to whisper, I said to myself, why, I would whisper. I never felt so like a conspirator.”