"Precisely."
"There are more than two."
"I was stating the minimum."
"Well?"
"I wish you to order them to let me pa.s.s and go to a place perhaps ten minutes" walk from here. If you do so, I will return at the latest within half an hour" (he glanced at his watch) "--to be definite, before a quarter of eleven."
"Why should I do this?"
He came close to her and faced her. "What do you think of me now, Miss Santoine?"
"Why--"
"You are quite certain now, are you not, that I had nothing to do with the attack on your father--that is, in any other connection than that the attack might be meant for me. I denied yesterday that the men in the automobile meant to run me down; you did not accept that denial. I may as well admit to you that I know perfectly well they meant to kill me; the man on the train also meant to kill me. They are likely to try again to kill me."
"We recognize that too," she answered. "The men on watch about the house are warned to protect you as well as watch you."
"I appreciate that."
"But are they all you have to fear, Mr. Eaton?" She was thinking of Donald Avery.
He seemed to recognize what was in her mind; his eyes, as he gazed intently at her, clouded, then darkened still more with some succeeding thought. "No, not all."
"And it will aid you to--to protect yourself if you see your friend to-night?"
"Yes."
"But why should not one of Father"s men be with you?"
"Unless I were alone, my friend would not appear."
"I see."
He moved away from her, then came back; the importance to him of what he was asking was very plain to her--he was shaking nervously with it.
"Miss Santoine," he said intently, "you do not think badly of me now.
I do not have to doubt that; I can see it; you have wanted me to see it. I ask you to trust me for a few minutes to-night. I cannot tell you whom I wish to see or why, except that the man comes to do me a service and to endanger no one--except those trying to injure me."
She herself was trembling with her desire to help him, but recollection of her father held her back; then swiftly there came to her the thought of Gabriel Warden; because Warden had tried to help him--in some way and for some reason which she did not know--Warden had been killed.
And feeling that in helping him there might be danger to herself, she suddenly and eagerly welcomed that danger, and made her decision.
"You"ll promise, Mr. Eaton, not to try to--leave?"
"Yes."
"Let us go out," she said.
She led the way downstairs and, in the hall, picked up a cape; he threw it over her shoulders and brought his overcoat and cap. But in his absorption he forgot to put them on until, as they went out into the garden together, she reminded him; then he put on the cap. The night was clear and cool, and no one but themselves seemed to be about the house.
"Which way do you want to go?" she asked.
He turned toward the forested acres of the grounds which ran down to a ravine at the bottom of which a little stream trickled toward the lake.
As they approached the side of this ravine, a man appeared and investigated them. He recognized the girl"s figure and halted.
"It"s all right, Willis," she said quietly.
"Yes, ma"am."
They pa.s.sed the man and went down the path into the ravine and up the tiny valley. Eaton halted.
"Your man"s just above there?" he asked her.
"Yes."
"He"ll stay there?"
"Yes; or close by."
"Then you don"t mind waiting here a few moments for me?"
"No," she said. "You will return here?"
"Yes," he said; and with that permission, he left her.
Both had spoken so that the man above could not have heard; and Harriet now noticed that, as her companion hurried ahead, he went almost noiselessly. As he disappeared, the impulse to call him back almost controlled her; then she started to follow him; but she did not. She stood still, shivering a little now in the cold; and as she listened, she no longer heard his footsteps. What she had done was done; then just as she was telling herself that it must be many moments before she would know whether he was coming back, she heard him returning; at some little distance, he spoke her name so as not to frighten her. She knew at once it was he, but a change in the tone surprised her. She stepped forward to meet him.
"You found your friend?"
"Yes."
"What did he tell you?" Her hand caught his sleeve in an impulse of concern, but she tried to make it seem as though she grasped him to guide her through the trees of the ravine. "I mean what is wrong that you did not expect?"
She heard his breath come fast.
"Nothing," he denied.
"No; you must tell me!" Her hand was still on his arm.
"I cannot."
"Why can you not?"
"Why?"
"Can"t you trust me?"
"Trust you!" he cried. He turned to her and seized her hands. "You ask me to--trust you!"
"Yes; I"ve trusted you. Can"t you believe as much in me?"