"There is a method in his madness, though," she answered. "He evidently believes I am on the eve of being captured, and as the reward is a large one, he wishes to secure it before it is snapped up by anybody else."
I thought for a little while and then spoke again.
"You say he is unmarried; in that case he has no wife or children to consider. He has no business—then he cannot bring ruin upon a trusting public. I should say abduct him before he can do any harm. Surely it could be managed with a little ingenuity?"
Alie was silent for a few moments. Then she looked up and her face brightened.
"I believe you have hit on the very idea," she said. "I will think it over, and, if possible, it shall be carried into effect. Yes, I will abduct him, and bring him here. But we must remember that he has always been most suspicious, and he will be doubly so now. For every reason it is impossible for me to go into Singapore and abduct him in my own proper person, so I must do it in disguise."
"No!" I answered promptly; "you must not run such a risk. Supposing he should recognise you?"
"He has never seen me in his life," she replied; then, smiling, she continued, "And you have evidently not yet grasped my talent for disguising myself."
"But somebody must accompany you," said Walworth, who all this time had been turning my scheme over and over in his mind; "and the worst part of it is, he knows me so well that I dare not go."
Long before this I had made up my mind.
"I think, since you have honoured me with your confidence," I said, turning to Alie, "I have a right to ask a favour at your hands."