"... Who at this moment is not twenty yards away from you, and who will fly with me to-night to where all your police boats will never find us."
"By force."
"Well, up to the present I admit that I have had to take the law into my own hands. I am a man who believes in getting what he wants. Your arrival, the fact that you're my guest for a short time, has given my thoughts quite a new direction."
I saw that there was a deep and sinister meaning in what he said, but not an inkling of the abominable truth came to me. He understood that from my face, and he laughed out loud.
"Oh, this is going to be enormously refreshing!" he cried. "This is going to make everything worth while!"
My heart turned to stone as I watched that unholy merriment.
When he had finished laughing, he said: "Miss Shepherd does not know as yet that I have the honour of entertaining you. I am about to inform her. And then, if she wishes it, as no doubt she will, you must really meet. Journeys end in lovers' meetings, they say."
He was about to add something when there was a knock at the door. Mr. Vargus came in.
"All loaded," he said, looking nervously at me, as if wondering what had passed during his absence. "All loaded and everything ready for a start. The others have gone up to the house."
"Well, there's nothing to report, or they would have telephoned down. There is no hurry for an hour yet...."