She realized that he was not to be moved from his declaration.
“How deep is the water where you threw the glasses?� she asked as he did not move from his position.
“Fifty or sixty feet, Saidee. There’s an undertow and tides and waves. It’s no use! Let’s forget the smoked-glasses and go to Stavanger. We’ve got a right to live in this world. Has the Yard any strings on you?�
She did not answer him. Instead, she stepped to the edge of the cliff and glanced downward. She swayed, braced her foot and stood there in an attitude of thought. Finally she turned and came back to him.
Her hand clutched his left arm as she drew him toward the side rocks and a shelter from the wind. She spread her damp skirt and sat down upon a driftwood plank which someone had carried up from the sea. She dropped her face in her hands. He watched her.
“Quit that!â€� he said with feeling. “What are you doing—crying?â€�
She glanced up swiftly. Her eyes were bright and free from tears. “I’m thinking, Chester,â€� she said, “of a number of things. I’m not like other women—or girls. I can hate and I can despise. I almost hate you, now. Your friends are Sir Richard and MacKeenon. They helped me get you out of Dartmoor. You say they did it for a purpose. Granting that does not change matters. The purpose is a high one. You responded at first. You took their parole and went to Holland. Now, when you may have held the key
to the dye cipher in your hand, you threw it away. You talk of going to Stavanger and to the States. Don’t you realize the obligation you owe to me?�
Fay shook his head with emphasis. “I realize that the whole thing is up,� he said feelingly. “I hate Scotland Yard, now! They sent me on a venture filled with dangers for me, and none for them. They took a chance that the package in the embassy’s safe was the cipher-key. They didn’t know any more about it than I did. It’s proved! Do you think a clever German chemist would have a key hidden in a pair of smoked-glasses? He left them with the embassy for a gull. The true key, if there was one, died with him.�
“Then Dutch Gus and the others were wrong?�