"Nevertheless, I mean to do it," I said doggedly. "Besides, how comes it that you know what we're going to do?"
He shrugged his shoulders, and laughed. "My dear boy, the thing is so transparent! I know enough of you to guess that you wouldn't allow her to stay in this place; and then, by the merest chance, I saw her creeping through the grounds this evening, and making for this summer-house. Later I discovered these things which she had left. There's the whole matter in a nutshell."
"And I suppose you think you'll prevent our going—or warn the doctor?" I said, in a threatening tone.
He threw up his hands with a gesture of despair, and seemed to appeal to the very trees and the stars against me. "Look at this fellow!" he exclaimed. "What is one to make of him? As if I had suggested trying to stop you—or suggested warning Bardolph Just! On the contrary, I swear to you that I am here to help you."
He seemed so honest about the matter, and had taken my suspicions so good-temperedly, that I was disarmed. "Tell me," I said, "what do you mean to do? How will you help us?"
He sprang to his feet, and spread out his arms; and then suddenly touched me lightly with his fingers on each shoulder—almost as though he would embrace me. "My dear boy," he said in his eager fashion, "I am all for romance. When I see a boy and a girl taking their way out on to the great highway of life, ready to walk hand in hand together to the very end of the road, my heart leaps out towards them. Consequently, when I guessed your secret, I asked myself what I could do to help you. And I have found a way."
"What is the way?" I asked.
"Our common foe is Dr. Bardolph Just," he said, lowering his voice, and looking about him as though he feared that even in that secluded spot we might be overheard. "Now, Dr. Bardolph Just does not know that I have changed my abode; he is totally unaware of the fact that I reside within a mile or so of this house. Consequently, what is to prevent your bringing the young lady to that little cottage of which we both know, and where there is a decent woman to look after her? Let the future take care of itself, if you like—but be careful of the present. I will provide you with what money is necessary, so that while the doctor is eating his heart out with rage, and is moving heaven and earth to discover the runaways, you will be lying snug at my place, making your arrangements for the time to come."
I began to think that it was a good enough plan. I would, of course, infinitely have preferred to start off with Debora on some journey of which we did not even know the end; but that was, perhaps, a foolish idea, and not one to be encouraged with a young girl to be considered. More than that, as Harvey Scoffold had blundered upon the story, it was quite impossible to keep him out of it; and I knew that he was a man of that temper that, if I curtly refused his offer, he might well betake himself to Bardolph Just at once, and let him into the whole secret. There were many reasons urging me to close with his offer, and, although with reluctance, I did so.
"Very well, then; I accept," I said. "Only, heaven help you if you play any tricks with us!"