use is there in my enlarging on this subject? You cannot fail to see
the danger I am in, and the absolute imperative necessity for flight.
Another day's procrastination may be my undoing. Who knows what signal
they are awaiting to denounce me, and how many others may be implicated
in my ruin? I must get away from here; I must flee in absolute secrecy,
and none of them must be allowed to suspect where I am gone. You and
Kosinski alone I can trust. You alone must be in the secret of my
flight. Will you help me, Isabel?" and at this point Giannoli seized my
hand, and then, overcome and unnerved by excitement, he allowed his head
to sink on to the table and sobbed convulsively.
My head was fairly swimming by this time. How far was all this true? how
far the imaginings of an over-wrought, over-excited brain? However, the
immediate urgencies of the situation gave me no time to carefully weigh
the matter. I must either act or refuse to act, thereby leaving my
friend alone to his despair and possible ruin. I decided on the former
course.
"I think that you exaggerate, Giannoli," I answered him. "You are ill
and over-wrought, and require rest and change. Get away from here by all
means if there is any danger in remaining, but do not take too gloomy a
view of the situation. I am at your disposal and willing to help you in
every way in my power. Tell me where you think of going, and what I can
do. But in the meantime, had we not better get supper somewhere, and
discuss the situation over a little reassuring food?"
This unheroic but practical suggestion met with poor Giannoli's
approbation, and he confessed to not having broken his fast all day.
He also seemed relieved at the prospect of leaving the vicinity of the
office where he was convinced that spies surrounded him, and having
thanked and re-thanked me over and over again for my proffered
assistance, he led the way down the ladder, and together we gained
the street. I was horribly shocked at the haggard strained look of the
unfortunate Italian which the clearer light down here revealed. He
had aged ten years since his arrival. We made our way towards a
small restaurant in Soho frequented principally by the lower order of
_cocotte_, and here over a savoury but inexpensive meal we discussed our
plans.
"I can scarcely dare believe that this hell is coming to an end!"
exclaimed Giannoli. "The assurance of your sympathy is already
lightening my burden. I am beginning once more to take hope and courage!
Oh, to have at last left that awful den where night and day I have felt
myself watched by unseen treacherous eyes, and my every breath noted by
my enemies! I shall never put foot there again. You and Kosinski must
get my things away from there to-night, and to-morrow I leave London by
the first continental train."
"Where do you purpose going?" I inquired.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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