“How should I know? He’s got no particular reason to love me, has he? But what’s most likely is that Lechworthy himself has been deceived by King Smith.”
“That won’t do, Bassett. The deceit would be found out next day. King Smith, on the contrary, is most anxious to do all that he can to please Lechworthy and to win him over. What do you think, Pryce?”
“That is so. The letter is quite genuine. Bassett will hand himself over to the man, and—”
“I will not,” screamed Bassett.
“You will,” said Pryce. “You will be made to do it. You see the situation that way, Sweetling, don’t you?”
“Of course I do. Listen to me, Bassett. You have asked the King to spare your life, and offered in return to hand yourself over to Lechworthy. He spares your life, and imposes a condition which amounts to what you offered—he is merely making certain that you do hand yourself over to Lechworthy. What do you think will happen when the King finds that he has been fooled and that you have broken your word? My friend, in that case he would get you, even if it were necessary to set all the natives on us to-night, as he could do. He would get you, and I fancy he would adopt barbarous ways of killing you. Therefore, you will be at the gates shortly before midnight—even if you have to be carried there.”
“It comes to this,” said Bassett, “that I’m betrayed by you two.” His shoulders shook, the nails of his yellow hands beat the table convulsively, his thin lips twitched sideways and upwards.
“Bassett,” said Dr Soames Pryce, “try to behave a little more like a man, won’t you? This sort of show isn’t—it’s not very pretty, you know. I give you my word of honour that I believe your life’s safe if you’ll only do what the King tells you. You’ll have to go on board the Snowflake, of course, but you’ll get a chance to give Lechworthy the slip long before he gets to England. Then you’ll come back here—you’ve got the money to do it with. If it’s any consolation to you, I may tell you that I shall probably be on the schooner myself—private business of my own—and I’ll see that you get your opportunity.”
“You on board too? How? What business do you mean?”
“I think I said private business of my own.”