More and more the thought of leaving those two alone together, even for a short while, filled me with angry uneasiness, and I paced my bedroom floor impatiently enough. Judge then of my relief and delight when within a few minutes Eileen knocked at my door and said—
"I have come to pay you a morning call if I may."
I began to wish then that Herr Tiel would spend an hour or two in looking out clothes for me, and as a matter of fact he did. Eileen explained that he had said he must do some errand in his capacity as parish minister, but what the mystery-monger was really about, Heaven knows!
"Now," said I to Eileen, when we were seated and I had lit a cigarette, "I want to ask you something about this new scheme that we three are embarked upon."
She began to shake her head at once.
"I am very much in the dark," said she. "Tiel tells me as little as he tells you."
"You must surely know one thing. What is your own part in it? Why were you brought into the islands? Such risks are not run for nothing."
"What is a woman's part in such a plan usually?" she asked in a quiet voice.
I was a little taken aback. It was not exactly pleasant to think of—in connection with Eileen.
"I believe they sometimes act as decoys," I said bluntly.