We talked a little more, he drank tea, he smoked, and, to my growing discomfort, I found in him the same note of pessimism and apprehension that Morse could not conceal, and Rolston himself had partially revealed.
"But I won't believe that any harm can come to Miss Morse," I said, almost angrily.
The thin lips smiled.
"That I never said, Sir Thomas. There are no indications of that. You and your lady are in peril, but you will win through."
"Confound it, man, your liver must be out of order. It seems to me that captivity in this magnificent bird-cage has the same effect on every one. I shall get Morse to come and hunt with me in the Shires. I've got a nice little box in Gloucestershire, close to Chipping Norton, and by Jove, Pu-Yi, I'll mount you and give you a run with the Heythrope. You talk as if you actually knew something. As if you had information of a calamity."
"I hear it in the wind," he said strangely, and his voice was like a withered leaf blown before the wind. Then he left me.
I dined with Juanita and her father. Bill was asked too, and he kept my girl, and sometimes even Mr. Morse, in fits of laughter with stories of his short but erratic career, and especially a racy account of his illicit opium-selling down below.
"You see, sir," he said, "you brought it on yourself, by kidnaping me in the first instance. I had to get my own back."
Morse's face clouded over for a moment.
"It was a disgraceful thing to do," he said. "I quite admit it, but had the necessity arisen I'd have kidnaped George Robey or the Prince of Wales," and from that moment always I seemed to see that a faint but perceptible shadow was creeping over his spirits.