"I know," I said. "When I guessed the stick held the plan, I should have held my tongue. But I did not think of that. It was not easy to think at all just at that time, and I must needs be quick. They spoke of attacking the house, and I dreaded that.... I should not have been able to give you any warning.... I should not have been able to give you any help ... for, you see, the slab of stone was already removed in the shed." "Oh, don't!" she cried out, and pressed her hands to her temples. "I shall never forgive myself. Think! A week ago you and I were strangers. It cannot be right that you should go in deadly peril because of me." "Madam," said I, greatly relieved, "you make too much of a thing of no great consequence. I hope to wear my life lightly." "Always?" said she quickly, as she stopped and looked at me. I stopped, too, and looked at her. "I think so," said I, but without the same confidence. "Always." She had a disconcerting habit of laughing when there was no occasion whatever for laughter. She fell into that habit now, and I hastened to recall her to Tortue's embarrassing presence on the island. "Of course," said I, "a word to the Governor at Star Castle and we are rid of him. But he stood between me and my death, and he trusts to my silence." "We must keep that silence," she answered. "Yet he waits for Cullen Mayle, and--it will not be well if those two men meet." "Why does he wait? Do you know that, too?" I did not know, as I told her, though I had my opinion, of which I did not tell her. "The great comfort is this. Tortue did not make one upon that expedition to the Sierra Leone River, but his son did. Tortue only fell in with George Glen and his gang at an ale-house in Wapping, and _after_--that is the point--after Glen had lost track of Cullen Mayle. Tortue, therefore, has never seen Cullen, does not know him. We have an advantage there. So should he come to Tresco, while I go back along the road to search for him, you must make your profit of that advantage." She stopped again. "You will go, then?" "Why, yes." She shook her head, reflectively. "It is not right," she said. "I am going chiefly," said I, "because I wish to recover my horse." She always laughed when I mentioned that horse, and her laughter always made me angry. "Do you doubt I have a horse?" I asked. "Or rather _had_ a horse? Because Cullen Mayle stole it, stole it deliberately from under my nose--a very valuable horse which I prized even beyond its value--and he stole it." The girl was in no way impressed by my wrath, and she said, pleasantly: "I am glad you said that. I am glad to know that with it all, you are mean like other men." "Madam," I returned, "when Cullen Mayle stole my horse, and rode away upon it, he put out his tongue at me. I made no answer. Nor do I make any answer to the remark which you have this moment addressed to me."