He nodded. "But before we can show them the way out we have to be pretty sure of it ourselves. As a game of hide-and-seek, you would be surprised at the ingenuity displayed in keeping things hid from me.... Miss Fairchild, I am going to be blunt. Your brother has acted very foolishly. The different factors in this game have been suddenly thrown into a panic; like a crowd at a theatre when the cry of fire is raised, they impede each other, and do not help themselves. Mr. Fairchild's move was as silly and uncalled for as any I have yet encountered."
"You do indeed make me anxious," said Charlotte; "but I am very ignorant of this wretched affair."
"Yes; I do not doubt that now," he quietly interposed. "But I also know that you can be a very powerful factor in clearing up the mystery."
She regarded him incredulously. "Oh, no," she protested; "what can I do?" Then, after waiting a moment, she faltered: "But tell me, Mr. Converse, do—do you believe him—my brother—"
He laughed. "Do you?"
"Mr. Converse," her dignity was impressive, "I have his word."
Again he laughed. "Miss Fairchild," said he with an abrupt transition to seriousness, "at this moment the idea of bullying or frightening you would strike me as being absurd were I not humbly contrite for ever having entertained such a thought; but the emergency is so urgent—a certain person is threatened by so lively a peril—that it is really imperative that something be done for that person immediately. If you and I should get at cross-purposes—why, I believe now that I could only step to one side and let events take their own way. To prove that I am contrite, I am going to warn you against myself."
Charlotte said nothing.
"You have been in communication with your brother since he disappeared. No," he went on hastily, as she seemed about to speak, "I am not going to take any unfair advantage of you. Instead, with your permission, I intend taking you into my confidence; go over the ground from my knowledge of the facts; and then lay before you my deductions therefrom, together with the immediate motives for my intrusion. Afterward I shall ask you what I wish to know."
He waited with his gaze fixed sharply upon her. She sat for some time thoughtful.