"I certainly will not."
"You must not know anything about me when you are questioned, but you can suggest that, possibly, I have become seared, and slid away."
"Why do you not go?"
"Go! why, my child, I'm getting right down to the business that brought me here; in a few days I'll have matters dead to rights; and, while I think of it, let me warn you, do not let Tom Pearce go off any more."
"He does not go off nowadays. He has not been off in the yacht for a year. He is getting too old."
"Give him a warning."
"How warn him?"
"Tell him to lay low, that the officers have got all the points down good, and are about to close in; tell him he'll be safe if he lies quiet close from this time out."
"I will warn him; but, alas! it's you who should take warning.
You know not your peril?"
"We will drop that matter for the present. I have only one more word to say: You must know nothing about me, under any circumstances whatever; you must never seek to communicate with me, unless I first address you."