Forrest sat down on the edge of a chest. "Engleton," he said, "don't be a fool. It can do you no particular good to ruin Cecil here and myself, just because you happen to be suspicious. Let that drop. Tell us that you have decided to let it drop, and the world can take you into its arms again." "I refuse," Engleton answered. "I refuse once and for always. I tell you that I have made up my mind to see you punished for this. How I get out I don't care, but I shall get out, and when I do, you two will be laid by the heels." "We came here to-night," Forrest said slowly, "prepared to compromise with you." "There is no compromise," Engleton answered fiercely. "There is nothing which you could offer which could repay me for the horror of the nights you have left me to shiver here in this d--d vault. Don't flatter yourself that I shall ever forget it. I stay on because I cannot escape, but I would sooner stay here for ever than beg for mercy from either of you." "Upon my word," Forrest declared, "our friend is quite a hero." "I am hero enough, at any rate," Engleton answered, "to refuse to bargain with you. Get out, both of you, before I lose my temper." Forrest came a little further into the room. The thunder of the sea seemed almost above their heads. The little lamp on the table by Engleton's side gave little more than a weird, unnatural light around the circle in which he sat. "That isn't quite all that we came to say," Forrest remarked coldly. "To tell you the truth we have had enough of playing jailer." "I can assure you," Engleton answered, "that I have had equally enough of being your prisoner." "We are agreed, then," Forrest continued smoothly. "You will probably be relieved when I tell you that we have decided to end it." Engleton rose to his feet. "So much the better," he said. "You might keep me here till doomsday, and the end would be the same." "We do not propose," Forrest continued, "to keep you here till doomsday, or anything like it. What we have come to say to you is this--that if you still refuse to give your promise--I need not say more than that--we are going to set you free." "Do you mean that literally?" Engleton asked. "Perhaps not altogether as you would wish to understand it," Forrest admitted. "We shall give you a chance at high tide to swim for your life." Engleton shrunk a little back. After all, his nerves were a little shattered. "Out there?" he asked, pointing to the seaward end of the passage. Forrest nodded. "It will be a chance for you," he said. Engleton looked at them for a moment, dumbfounded. "It will be murder," he said slowly. Forrest shrugged his shoulders. "You may call it so if you like," he answered. "Personally, I should not be inclined to agree with you. You will be alive when you go into the sea. If you cannot swim, the fault is not ours." "And when, may I ask," Engleton continued, "do you propose to put into operation your amiable plan?"