“He was, sir, but no papers were found. He stated to me later that his despatch was verbal.”
“Had it been delivered?”
“I so understood him.”
“Well, how did he account to you for being where he was found?”
Brennan hesitated, and glanced uneasily toward me. Like a flash the thought came that the man was striving to keep her name entirely out of sight: he did not wish her presence mentioned.
“There was no explanation attempted,” he said finally. “He seemed simply to be hiding there.”
“Alone?”
Again I caught his eyes, and it almost seemed that I read entreaty in them.
“Excepting the wife of the mountaineer,” he answered hoarsely.
“Is this true?” asked Sheridan, his stern face fronting me.