“Have you a plan for escape from the city?” he asked.
“We have talked it over with Slipitsky—the Jew. But my father is averse to having any hand in putting you into danger.”
Peter smiled. “Your father need not worry about that,” he said lightly. “Did we not arrange last night?”
“True, but——” She hesitated to go on, and turned her face from him.
“Has your father changed his mind since last night?” asked Peter, alert at once.
“Oh, no,” she said, looking at the floor. “We—we thought you might change yours. You have not been sleeping—and perhaps you gave thought to——”
“I have not changed my mind about Kirsakoff,” he said when it was plain that she was not going to finish her sentence. “I am still determined to—find him.”
“We thought you might have changed your mind about helping us.” She lifted her head, and smiled at him.
He saw at once that her reluctance to avail herself of his help was only feigned. She was too subtle to be over-eager in a matter which concerned her own safety and the safety of her father. She intended that Peter should be the insistent one, so that any suspicions he might have that they sought their own safety rather than Kirsakoff, would be allayed. She wished the trip to Harbin to be made on his wishes instead of out of their own selfish, if natural, desire to escape the Ataman.
Peter laughed without mirth.