"Probably I should have," Lawless replied, "had I not been perfectly aware of the distrust with which you regard me, which you have never succeeded in controlling or concealing since you first engaged my services. You have--whether intentionally or not, I can't say--insulted me more than enough. You have openly questioned my honesty. And you expect me to swallow all that--for a consideration... And I do swallow it... Why? ... I hardly know... For the consideration, perhaps." He moved away to the window, halted there, and turned sharply upon his heel. "You want to hear what I've done," he said, coming back, and hovering uncertainly between a small table on which a lamp burnt and the chair from which he had risen. He was too excited to seat himself. Colonel Grey watched him curiously, the old struggle between liking for the man and distrust of him still battling for the supremacy. It was odd that, in spite of the distrust, in face of prejudice, the liking remained. "I've been in the Stellenbosch district ever since leaving Cape Town--" "Alone?" interrupted the Colonel. "Not alone--no! ... I went there solely on your business--" "With a companion?" Lawless swore at this further interruption. "Damn it! ... yes," he answered almost violently.--"On your business-- with a companion. And, what's more to the point, that same companion is following up Van Bleit now." The Colonel leant forward and stared at the speaker aghast. "That--that _woman_!" he spluttered. "Have a care!" Lawless said curtly. "The agent that I have employed is working for my sake, not for yours; and is likely to prove more successful than either you or I could hope to be at the present stage of affairs. Van Bleit recognises an enemy in me." "I won't have it," the Colonel shouted. "You were not justified in employing an agent on your own authority... A--woman like that is not to be trusted on such a delicate mission. The letters would be as dangerous in her possession as they are in Van Bleit's... You are a fool if you believe she would hand them over to you... She mustn't be allowed to get hold of them." "She won't," Lawless replied calmly. "You forget, I tell you he hasn't them in his charge." "How can you possibly be sure of that? ... And if it's true, where's the use in following him?" "At our first meeting," Lawless reminded him, and took one of his short sharp turns between the table and chair and back again, "when I undertook this job, I told you that if I failed in getting the letters I would kill your man... That's what I'm after now. I'm keener on it than on anything else." Colonel Grey sat back in his seat and crossed one knee over the other.