Engleton rose to his feet.
"So much the better," he said. "You might keep me here till doomsday, and the end would be the same."
"We do not propose," Forrest continued, "to keep you here till doomsday, or anything like it. What we have come to say to you is this—that if you still refuse to give your promise—I need not say more than that—we are going to set you free."
"Do you mean that literally?" Engleton asked.
"Perhaps not altogether as you would wish to understand it," Forrest admitted. "We shall give you a chance at high tide to swim for your life."
Engleton shrunk a little back. After all, his nerves were a little shattered.
"Out there?" he asked, pointing to the seaward end of the passage.
Forrest nodded.
"It will be a chance for you," he said.
Engleton looked at them for a moment, dumbfounded.