She looked at him in astonishment.
“You wanted me to go to that village of savages?” she gasped. “You wanted me to leave you?”
“It would have given me a freer hand.”
Heyst stretched out his hands and looked at them for a moment, then let them fall by his side. Indignation was expressed more in the curve of her lips than in her clear eyes, which never wavered.
“I believe Wang laughed,” he went on. “He made a noise like a turkey-cock.”
“'That would be worse than anything,' he told me.
“I was taken aback. I pointed out to him that he was talking nonsense. It could not make any difference to his security where you were, because the evil men, as he calls them, did not know of your existence. I did not lie exactly, Lena, though I did stretch the truth till it cracked; but the fellow seems to have an uncanny insight. He shook his head. He assured me they knew all about you. He made a horrible grimace at me.”
“It doesn't matter,” said the girl. “I didn't want—I would not have gone.”
Heyst raised his eyes.
“Wonderful intuition! As I continued to press him, Wang made that very remark about you. When he smiles, his face looks like a conceited death's head. It was his very last remark that you wouldn't want to. I went away then.”