"Oh, yes, I am distressed; dreadfully distressed." Again she was silent, but still she lingered. "I am going to walk home again," she said suddenly. "Would you care to walk a little way with me?" At that moment I wanted my own company and had a certain shrinking from hers; so the voice of Mr. Hobhouse bleated something about having caught a slight chill. "Please come a little way," she said. "I want to speak to you particularly." There was a note of appeal in her voice which would have taken a stouter man than Thomas Hobhouse to resist. Besides, he felt exceedingly curious. Her whole manner during the interview in fact roused a very strong sensation of curiosity. He got his hat and his coat (Mr. Hobhouse always wore a topcoat) and they crunched their way down the knobbly drive and passed out into the road, neither saying a word. And then Mr. Hobhouse got the most rousing eye-opener of his career, or of Roger Merton's either. She turned to him and said quietly, "I hope you are taking care of your own life, Mr. Merton." XII THE CONFIDANT A second or two passed before I was able to answer at all, and even then my first remark was not in the least worthy of the occasion; but it expressed precisely what was in my mind. "How the--how on earth did you find me out?" She smiled a little, but her manner was anxious still. "I haven't lived all my life in Ransay," she said. "I have even been to London and to quite a good many London theatres. In fact I've seen you act before, Mr. Merton." "What an extraordinary way to be found out!" I thought, and aloud I said, "But my name isn't on the programme in Ransay." "It was, when you were last here, you must remember," said she. I looked at her for a moment, and she at me, and in that exchange of glances I decided emphatically that there was no sign of evil in those eyes. Anyhow, I stood to lose nothing if I got her confidence, and my own could be withheld or not as I saw fit. "We might as well be frank," I said. "How exactly did you come to spot me?" Again she smiled, and each time she smiled straight at me like that, I confess frankly I grew less cautious. "Do you remember when Captain Whiteclett came to arrest you, your bed-room door was open just for a minute?" I did remember now and recalled her face outside and its very expression vividly. "I heard him call you 'Roger' and saw that you knew each other well, and then of course I knew we had been utterly wrong in thinking you a--" She paused and I finished the sentence for her. "A spy." "Well, are you honestly surprised? You did do some most extraordinary things, Mr. Merton! I only began to get the least idea of what you were about some time afterwards." "And what idea did you get then? And how did you get it?" "It was when we began to hear of the bad name our island was getting. _Then_ I guessed you must have been trying to investigate and catch the traitor--and I had gone and interfered--and even locked you up!"