him a wink
to do anything else. He won't budge from the jetty. Are you coming along
now, sir?"

A short-silence ensued. Ricardo's jaws were working ominously under his
skin. His eyes glided: voluptuously here and there, cruel and dreamy,
Heyst checked a sudden movement, reflected for a while, then said:

"You must wait a little."

"Wait a little! Wait a little! What does he think a fellow is--a graven
image?" grumbled Ricardo half audibly.

Heyst went into the bedroom, and shut the door after him with a bang.
Coming from the light, he could not see a thing in there at first; yet
he received the impression of the girl getting up from the floor. On
the less opaque darkness of the shutter-hole, her head detached itself
suddenly, very faint, a mere hint of a round, dark shape without a face.

"I am going, Lena. I am going to confront these scoundrels." He was
surprised to feel two arms falling on his shoulders. "I thought that
you--" he began.

"Yes, yes!" the girl whispered hastily.

She neither clung to him, nor yet did she try to draw him to her. Her
hands grasped his shoulders, and she seemed to him to be staring into
his face in the dark. And now he could see something of her face,
too--an oval without features--and faintly distinguish her person, in
the blackness, a form without definite lines.

"You have a black dress here, haven't you, Lena?" he asked, speaking
rapidly, and so low that she could just hear him.

"Yes--an old thing."

"Very good. Put it on at once."

"But why?"

"Not for mourning!" Them was something peremptory in the slightly ironic
murmur. "Can you find it and get into it in the dark?"

She could. She would try. He waited, very still. He could imagine
her movements over there at the far end of the room; but his eyes,
accustomed now to the darkness, had lost her completely. When she spoke,
her voice surprised him by its nearness. She had done what he had told
her to do, and had approached him, invisible.

"Good! Where's that piece of purple veil I've seen lying about?" he
asked.

There was no answer, only a slight rustle.

"Where is it?" he repeated impatiently.

Her unexpected breath was on his cheek.

"In my hands."

"Capital! Listen, Lena. As soon as I leave the bungalow with that
horrible scoundrel, you slip out at the back--instantly, lose no
time!--and run round into the forest. That will be your time, while we
are walking away, and I am sure he won't give me the slip