Plaskett shrugged deprecatingly. "Not for me to say. I can guess, perhaps. It's not possible to lock them all up, but these people are under arrest just the same. I must keep the disaffected from mingling with the loyal."
"That's all right," said Colina, "but you can give me a policeman to go up the river with me and make a search."
He shook his head regretfully but firmly. "Inspector Egerton ordered me to leave the up-river people alone," he said. "The coming of a policeman would throw them into excitement. No one can say what they might do. I can't take the responsibility."
Colina shrugged. "Then the Grampierres and I must go by ourselves," she said.
Plaskett became even stiffer and more uncomfortable. "Germain
Grampierre and his brother had no business to leave home," he said.
"By their own confessions they are implicated in the raid on the Company's flour-mill. They were told that if they remained at home they would not be molested. But if they attempted to escape they would immediately be arrested."
"They're not trying to escape!" cried Colina.
"I don't believe they are," said Plaskett. "But I've got to send them home. Orders are orders."
But this was not the kind of argument to use with a young woman whose blood is up.
"Don't you recognize anything but orders?" she cried. "Inspector Egerton is hundreds of miles away by this time. Are you going to wait for his orders before you act?"