“To-morrow night?”
“Ay.”
“Well, it can be done,” she said coolly, “if the wind across the lake holds. I can steal a boat as I planned for you, and nobody will be the wiser. There’s no moon, and the nights are dark; and who’s to trace them from Newby Bridge? After all, it’s not from them the danger will come, but from the girl.”
He groaned.
“I thought you were sure she wouldn’t tell,” he sneered.
“Well, she has not told yet, or they had been here,” Bess answered. “But she may speak—by-and-by.”
“Curse her!”
“And that is why I am not so sorry your folks are coming,” she continued, with a queer look at him. “If they’ll help us, we’ll stop her mouth. And she’ll not speak now, nor by-and-by.”
He looked up, startled.
“You don’t mean—no!” he cried sharply, “I’ll not have it.”