What
was it, Lena? You did give me a scare! Then I had the interview with
Wang while you rested. You were sleeping quietly. I sat here to consider
all these things calmly, to try to penetrate their inner meaning and
their outward bearing. It struck me that the two days we have before
us have the character of a sort of truce. The more I thought of it, the
more I felt that this was tacitly understood between Jones and myself.
It was to our advantage, if anything can be of advantage to people
caught so completely unawares as we are. Wang was gone. He, at any rate,
had declared himself, but as I did not know what he might take it into
his head to do, I thought I had better warn these people that I was no
longer responsible for the Chinaman. I did not want Mr. Wang making some
move which would precipitate the action against us. Do you see my point
of view?"

She made a sign that she did. All her soul was wrapped in her passionate
determination, in an exalted belief in herself--in the contemplation
of her amazing opportunity to win the certitude, the eternity, of that
man's love.

"I never saw two men," Heyst was saying, "more affected by a piece of
information than Jones and his secretary, who was back in the bungalow
by then. They had not heard me come up. I told them I was sorry to
intrude.

"'Not at all! Not at all,' said Jones.

"The secretary backed away into a corner and watched me like a wary cat.
In fact, they both were visibly on their guard.

"'I am come,' I told them, 'to let you know that my servant has
deserted--gone off.'

"At first they looked at each other as if they had not understood what I
was saying; but very soon they seemed quite concerned.

"'You mean to say your Chink's cleared out?' said Ricardo, coming
forward from his corner. 'Like this--all at once? What did he do it
for?'

"I said that a Chinaman had always a simple and precise reason for what
he did, but that to get such a reason out of him was not so easy. All he
told me, I said, was that he 'didn't like'.

"They were extremely disturbed at this. Didn't like what, they wanted to
know.

"'The looks of you and your party,' I told Jones.

"'Nonsense!' he cried out, and immediately Ricardo, the short man,
struck in.

"'Told you that? What did he take you for, sir--an infant? Or do you
take us for kids?--meaning no offence. Come, I bet you will tell us next
that you've missed something.'"

"'I didn't mean to tell you anything of t