“Did the king send you any word about Lentala, his fan-bearer?”
“I talked with the man about her. I knew there was some mystery about her and that she was close to the king. I asked that she be sent to make the plans with me.”
His halt whetted my anxiety. “What did he say?”
“That she must know nothing about it, or she would break the plot.”
My heart choked me with its bounding. I had gained more than I had lost, but my heart was sore for Annabel.
“I must go,” I said. “Next time I come I will go to your hut in the night. Don’t come into these woods again. The soldiers——”
He understood, and looked relieved. After he had disappeared I sat down in a daze, trying to reason out the tangle. Rawley was in the plot, but Annabel was innocent.
A sound made me raise my head, and I saw Christopher and Captain Mason standing before me. Christopher’s face wore its customary vacancy, but Captain Mason’s had a startled look, as though he had beheld what is not good for a man to see. It appeared to have shriveled him.
“Before Christopher summoned me,” he dully said without any preliminary, “he found the native and sent him away. We have heard every word that passed between you and Mr. Vancouver.”