g; but with that
atrocious-brute prowling all the time at the back of the house, how long
can your presence be concealed from these men?"

Heyst's distress could be felt in his silence. The girl's head,
sustained by her hands buried in the thick masses of her hair, had a
perfect immobility.

"You are certain you have not been seen so far?" he asked suddenly.

The motionless head spoke.

"How can I be certain? You told me you wanted me to keep out of the way.
I kept out of the way. I didn't ask your reason. I thought you didn't
want people to know that you had a girl like me about you."

"What? Ashamed?" cried Heyst.

"It isn't what's right, perhaps--I mean for you--is it?"

Heyst lifted his hands, reproachfully courteous.

"I look upon it as so very much right that I couldn't bear the idea of
any other than sympathetic, respectful eyes resting on you. I disliked
and mistrusted these fellows from the first. Didn't you understand?"

"Yes; I did keep out of sight," she said.

A silence fell. At last Heyst stirred slightly.

"All this is of very little importance now," he said with a sigh.
"This is a question of something infinitely worse than mere looks and
thoughts, however base and contemptible. As I have told you, I met
Ricardo's suggestions by silence. As I was turning away he said:

"'If you happen to have the key of that store-room of yours on you,
Mr. Heyst, you may just as well let me have it; I will give it to our
Pedro.'

"I had it on me, and I tendered it to him without speaking. The hairy
creature was at the door by then, and caught the key, which Ricardo
threw to him, better than any trained ape could have done. I came away.
All the time I had been thinking anxiously of you, whom I had left
asleep, alone here, and apparently ill."

Heyst interrupted himself, with a listening turn of his head. He had
heard the faint sound of sticks being snapped in the compound. He rose
and crossed the room to look out of the back door.

"And here the creature is," he said, returning to the table. "Here he
is, already attending to the fire. Oh, my dear Lena!"

She had followed him with her eyes. She watched him go out on the front
veranda cautiously. He lowered stealthily a couple of screens that hung
between the column, and remained outside very still, as if interested
by something on the open ground. Meantime she had risen in her turn, to
take a peep into the compound. Heyst, glancing over his shoulder, saw