There was an earnestness and intensity in her voice and a kindling of her eye as she said this that thrilled and inspired me like a trumpet. "We shall defeat them--never fear!" I cried. "We shall trample on the pride of England. It will be hard to do, but I have no doubt as to the result; have you?" "None," she said, quietly but with absolute confidence. Then that quick smile of hers, a little grave but very charming, broke over her face. "But let us get away for a little from war," she said. "You aren't smoking. Please do, if you wish to." I lit a cigarette, and offered one to her, but she said she did not smoke. And I liked her all the better. We talked more lightly for a while, or perhaps I should rather say less earnestly, for our situation did not lend itself to frivolity. It did lend itself however to romance,--we two sitting on either side of the peat fire, with a shaded lamp and the friendly flames throwing odd lights and shadows through the low, primitive room with its sloping attic-like walls and its scanty furniture; and the wind all the while tempestuously booming in the chimney and scouring land and sea. And neither on land nor sea was there a single friend; surrounded by enemies who would have given a heavy price to have learned who sat in that room, we talked of many things. At last, all too soon, she rose and wished me good-night. A demon of perversity seized me. "I shall escort you down to Mr Tiel, and the devil take his precautions!" I exclaimed. "Oh no," she protested. "After all he is in command." She really seemed quite concerned at my intention, but I can be very obstinate when I choose. "Tuts!" I said. "It is sheer rubbish to pretend that there is any risk at this time of night. Probably he is still out, and anyhow he will not have visitors at this hour." She looked at me very hard and quickly as if to see if I were possible to argue with, and then she gave a little laugh and merely said-- "You are terribly wilful, Mr Belke!" And she ran downstairs very quickly, as though to run away from me. I followed fast, but she was some paces ahead of me as we went down the dark passage to the front of the house. And then suddenly I heard guarded voices, and stopped dead. There was a bend in the passage just before it reached the hall, and Eileen had passed this while I had not, and so I could see nothing ahead. Then I heard the voice of Tiel say-- "Well?" It was a simple word of little significance, but the voice in which it was said filled me with a very unpleasant sensation. The man spoke in such a familiar, confidential way that I suddenly felt I could have shot him cheerfully. For the instant I forgot the problem of the other voice I had heard. "Mr Belke is with me! He insisted," she cried.