He was silent for a moment.
"No," he said, at last. "No one knows. I have heard it spoken of, his unknowableness, but no one has supplied a key to the mystery. I think—I think if we win out of this I must set machinery to work in Gibraltar—to find out."
"If!" she repeated sadly. "If!"
His lips set firmly.
"Not if," he answered resolutely. "When! Do you believe that men like Landon win! You, yourself? Didn't you tell him that he would have to pay, eventually. I'm going to present the bill—I. I know it; I have it as a conviction!"
Her eyes glowed down at him. The dead roots of hope began to sprout in her heart. The down-hearted, the fainéant? Has any natural woman a use for such an one? No! Nature made you the leader, they cry to the male. For God's sake, behave as one!
She offered no protest, no comment. She did not question his faith; her matter-of-factness only asked for detail.
"Meanwhile?" she questioned. "Meanwhile?"
He made a little grimace.
"It is a gray prospect," he admitted. "I lie here, unconscious. I lie physically—and by implication—morally. I feign myself as one on the lip of extinction. I wait!"