'I cannot do so. There are things I dare not say. I have had my tongue tied.'
He became graver, for he recalled now for the first time that ugly suspicion which had occurred to him in the morning.
'Winefred,' said he leisurely, 'perhaps your father or mother may say that I cannot have you, because I have inherited nothing from my father, who was supposed to have laid by a good deal of money. Believe me when I tell you this. Look up at those glittering stars overhead. I assure you solemnly, before those eyes of heaven, that if my father had accumulated a fortune, and had left it to me, I would not touch one penny of it, no, not one penny, for I know how it was got, by ways that I do not think straightforward, and perhaps even dishonest—by smuggling. I do not know whether there is any right or wrong in the matter—it was an underhand business, and that is enough. I will earn my livelihood honestly and openly, with my hands and head, and on that alone will I live, so help me God. If my father ever did lay by a store—I do not say that he did—and if by some accident it has gone astray so that I have not had the fingering of it—then, Winefred, mark my words—to that person into whose hands it has fallen I freely, cheerfully surrender it all. From this moment I give up all claim to it. I look upon it as though I have not, and never had, any right to it. I will bear no grudge against any such person as may have got hold of it by accident, and have hesitated about surrendering it. Winnie, if at any time you should chance to hear that it had been found and retained, then tell whomsoever it concerns to throw it into the sea, or give it to a hospital, or do what he likes with it. I will ask no questions, and not trouble my head about it—here is my real treasure, and I ask for none more.'
He would have clasped Winefred, but she forestalled him by catching his hand, and kissing it, and as she did so, a tear fell upon it.
'You are good,' she said, 'nevertheless, it remains the same—it cannot be.'
'But then—what is to become of us both?'
'I do not know.'
They walked side by side on the open down for a while. The stars glinted overhead. Below, the flints that had been fractured reflected the glint. The sea murmured unintelligible things below, and their minds were as that sea, fretting, chafing, uttering unintelligible murmurs.
At last Jack burst forth with:
'Is there no way out of this hobble?'