"I dare not tell you. I have already forfeited my life."
"Who is the man you were struggling with?"
"One of Argetti's confederates—one of the gang."
"You need not fear to confide in me. You have not forfeited your life. You shall be protected at all hazards."
"Ah, you do not know."
"Do not know what?"
"The desperate character of these men."
"What relation do you bear to these men?"
"I am an orphan; my parents died in an English poor-house. This man Argetti adopted me as his child. I have traveled all over the world with him, but now I must flee away and hide somewhere."
"You need not flee away. Argetti, as we call him, can do you no harm. We will take care of him."