The man left, followed by his clerk, and Nurse Roth closed the door behind them. When the sounds of their footsteps had faded away along the corridor, she turned to the table where she rearranged some roses in a vase.
"You lie very ingeniously, Herr Twenty-eight," she said with a smile.
Renwick regarded her calmly.
"It is not my nature, Nurse Roth. But a cracked skull doesn't improve the brains beneath."
She came over to him quickly, and stood beside the bed.
"You have some reason for concealing your identity. I know that you remember what happened. But I will protect you as far as I can, upon one condition."
"And that?" he asked anxiously.
"That you will give me your word of honor that it was not you who killed Nicholas Szarvas."
He caught her by the hand and smiled up at her with a look so genuine that there was no question as to his sincerity.
"I give it. I did not kill Nicholas Szarvas."