"If you speak at all," Darrin answered.
"But will Herr Fernald keep inviolate what I have to say?"
"In that," Darrin promised, "he will be governed by circumstances."
Dreiner hesitated for a few seconds before he began:
"I—I—er—I have to refer to an incident that followed our last words together on a former occasion."
"You mean, of course, the time, when you assembled on the deck of your craft four prisoners, of whom I was one, then closed your manhole and submerged, leaving us floundering in the water, and, as you expected, to die by drowning?"
"I have not admitted that any such thing took place," Herr Dreiner cried, hastily, with a side glance at Lieutenant Fernald.
"It will make no difference, Herr Dreiner, whether you admit or deny that inhuman attempt to murder four helpless prisoners," Dave rejoined. "It so happened that all four of us kept alive until rescued, and we are all four ready, at any time, to appear against you. So there is no use in evasion."
"Then you intend to bring the charge against me?" asked Dreiner, in a voice husky with either emotion or dread.
"I can make neither promises nor threats as to that," Darrin countered.