“Please do not. I beg of you.”
“But why?” he asked. “Only two days ago you urged me into this plan.”
“I did not then realize the danger!”
“I did. And I realize it now.”
But not all the danger, she wanted to cry out. But to warn him of the whole of his danger would be to reveal to him the truth about herself.
“And I am quite ready to face it,” he assured her. “I shall see this affair through to the end.”
She turned ghastly white. If she spoke, he would spurn her, despise her. If she did not——
But she dared not speak.
CHAPTER XVIII
FOR A BROTHER’S LIFE
AT the coming on of dusk the next afternoon Sonya set out for the Fortress. All was staked on that one bold cast of the die—her brother’s freedom if she won, her capture if she lost. Drexel had besought her to let him be the partner of her danger, but she had replied that for him to come would be merely a useless risk, since he could not possibly save her if trouble rose; moreover, the governor certainly would not speak in the presence of a third person. So she rode on her errand alone.