"Or, if not, you'll die of starvation."
"Very well," said Talbot, in a calm voice, and looking at Brooke out of serene eyes, with a face from which all traces of emotion had departed—"very well; I have already showed that I am not afraid of death; and death by starvation is not more terrible than death by bullets."
Brooke looked at her for a moment in silence, and then said,
"You are not in earnest?"
"I am in earnest," said Talbot, looking at him fixedly, and speaking in a resolute tone—"I am in earnest, and I mean to go this very night."
Brooke looked away, drew a long breath, and subsided into silence.
"How can you find the way?" he asked at length, in a gruff voice, and without looking up.
"I don't know," said Talbot; "I can try again, as I tried before."
Brooke looked up hastily, then looked away, and finally said,
"I think, Talbot, you might ask me to show you the way."