Thorne made no answer, and she continued:
"Lucy Calvert is, no doubt, a good deal more anxious than I am that he should escape, and it would be only natural if you wished to earn her thanks. I think she could be very nice, and her eyes are wonderfully blue."
Thorne met her inquiring gaze with one of contemplative scrutiny.
"Yours," he said, "are usually delightfully still and gray—like a pool on a moorland stream at home under a faintly clouded sky; but now and then they gleam with a golden light as the water does when the sun comes through."
His companion hastily abandoned that line of attack. His defense was too vigorous for her to follow it up.
"You feel that your hands are absolutely tied by the hint you gave Slaney that afternoon?" she asked.
"That's how it strikes me," Thorne declared. "In this case I'm afraid I'll have to stand aside and content myself with looking on."
"But haven't you already made it difficult for Nevis to get a messenger?"
"I've certainly given a couple of men a hint that I'd rather they didn't do any errand of his to-night. That may have been going too far—I can't tell." He paused and laughed softly. "Except when it's a case of selling patent medicines, I'm not a casuist."
Alison realized his point of view and in several ways it appealed to her. He had treated the matter humorously, but, though so little had been said by either of the men, it was clear that he felt he had pledged himself to Slaney, and was not to be moved.