"It rests with you, sir," he said.
The old man nodded and a queer smile played round the corners of his mouth—the smile of a pranky schoolboy.
"But surely," he said. "No one will doubt the course I shall take.
One must always stand by one's colours. I accept the hazard Against."
He moved a pace or two forward and bowed to Van Diest. "Good-evening,
Gentlemen."
Until this moment no one had been conscious of Isabel's presence in the room. She had been a silent agonised spectator, controlled by the belief that the value of persons would eventually be proved higher than the value of things. But the cold blooded refusal to protect her lover at the price of a few paltry millions, appalled her beyond bearing. She ceased to be a pretty child with a shock of curly hair and was transformed into a veritable fury.
"You beasts, you brutes, you torturers!" she cried. "You'd let them kill him without lifting a hand—you—you, ohh!"
Van Diest and the American moved toward the door, but she barred the way.
"Pick up that telephone. You shall have your price."
"I can't think you command it," said Hipps.
"Can't you? Then listen. If you stop them—call off the men that are after him, you shall be told the map reference of the place where he found the radium."
There was a startled murmur from the company.