But how could she bring herself to speak of it? They lingered at the door of the big house. The body-guard was waiting off in the drive with his back discreetly turned. Riever took enormous encouragement from the fact that Pen did not try to hurry away from him. "What are your plans?" she murmured. "We'll weigh anchor early to-morrow," Riever said, "and steam to Annapolis where I will obtain the necessary extradition papers. Then I'll have Counsell sent North by train. Before nightfall to-morrow he'll be lodged safe in the Tombs." "The Tombs?" "The New York City prison." Pen blushed crimson in the dark but doggedly forced herself to bring out the words: "But ... how about ... what you promised me..." Riever laughed. It had an unpleasant ring, though he probably meant it good-naturedly enough. "What a funny girl you are! Anxious about your thirty pieces of silver, eh? Don't worry! I'll see you in the morning before I go." Pen was obliged to let it go at that, though it was with a sickening anxiety. Riever's voice thickened again. "You've quieted down now," he murmured. "You're not going to let me go like this..." Pen's hands went up again, but he caught her roughly to him. He could not reach her face. He pressed a burning kiss on her neck. Pen tore herself away, and ran shudderingly to her room. CHAPTER XII THE _ALEXANDRA_ SAILS AWAY Next morning Pen was late, for her, in getting down-stairs, and her father was before her. He had already been out-of-doors and had heard the startling news. He was pale with excitement, and his expression presented a comical mixture of elation and outraged parental authority. "What is this?" he cried. "Counsell is caught? And caught by you!" "That pleases you, doesn't it?" said Pen, in a quiet way very aggravating to an excited man. "Pleases me?" he cried. "My daughter starting out at night on such an errand! Wandering around the woods with a gun! Pleases me!" He ended on a more human note. "You might have told me when you came in, instead of letting me learn it from strangers!" "I was all in," said Pen simply. "I couldn't face the added excitement even of telling you." "Um! Humph! Ha!" he snorted. "What will become of your reputation?" "Mr. Riever didn't seemed to think it had suffered," Pen murmured slyly. "Ha! ... Well, of course he wouldn't say so! ... I sha'n't be able to sleep quietly for thinking what _might_ have happened!" Pen saw that the indignant parent only wanted to put himself on record, and that underneath the man was delighted. She went ahead and gave him his breakfast. He ate it in a charming humor. Afterwards she went about her household chores waiting for Riever, sick with anxiety. Suppose he didn't come? Suppose even then, the yacht was getting ready to sail? She couldn't go out to see. She simply could not humiliate her pride to the extent of going down to the wharf to look for her money.