“But that cannot be so. No one knows that I told you anything about the position of things on the _Rampallo_,” and I questioned her with my eyes. “I tell you you will ruin me if you persist in refusing, Mr. Donnington,” and added under her breath: “We were overheard.” “I can’t believe that. These people are merely seeking to frighten you. Of course if I thought you were really in danger the thing would be altogether different,” and again my eyes questioned her. She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. “How can I prove it to you? I am. I know that. Even Dr. Barosa is alarmed, lest he may not be able to protect me from their violence.” “But he has already arranged for your escape and your mother’s.” She shook her head again meaningly. “These men have made that impossible to-day. We were prevented when everything was ready.” Once more the silent question from me, answered by the significant shake of her head, told me the real truth beneath her words. “But what you say only confirms my opinion--that by doing what is asked I should not help you,” I said. Her eyes signalled assent, but her lips uttered a quite emotional protest. “Is my safety nothing to you, then? If I beg and implore you to do what I have asked; if I tell you, as I do, that my liberty, and probably my life, depend upon your decision, is this all nothing to you?” Her look explained the double meaning of her words. She believed that not only my safety, but her own, depended upon my doing what she had asked--but asked not in words, but by her looks and whispered English asides. “You distress me more than I can say,” I replied, adopting a similar equivocation. “If it were possible I would tell you precisely how I feel.” “You appear to think you can set these men at defiance with impunity, and that they will not harm you or me so long as you refuse!” A swift interchange of glances told me that this was actually her belief. Then she added with passion: “How can you be so infatuated, so mad, so reckless? You will pay for refusal with your life.” Once more the significant gesture of the head denied the truth of her words.