"No," she murmured. "He told me what she said."

"That I told him he was his uncle's murderer?"

"Did you tell her to say that?" she asked, with a sudden inclination of
her body toward me.

"I did. Did he give you the message?"

She made no answer. I pressed my advantage.

"On my honor I saw what I have told you at the cottage," I said. "I know
what it means no more than you do. But before I came here I saw
Constantine in London. And there I heard a lady say she would come with
him. Did any lady come with him?"

"Are you mad?" she asked; but I could hear her breathing quickly, and I
knew that her scorn was assumed. I drew suddenly away from her, and put
my hands behind my back.

"Go to the cottage if you like," said I. "But I won't answer for what
you'll find there."

"You set me free?" she cried with eagerness.

"Free to go to the cottage. You must promise to come back. Or I'll go to
the cottage, if you'll promise to go back to your room and wait till I
return."

She hesitated, looking again toward where the cottage was; but I had
stirred suspicion and disquietude in her. She dared not face what she
might find in the cottage.

"I'll go back and wait for you," she said. "If I went to the cottage
and--and all was well, I'm afraid I shouldn't come back."

The tone sounded softer. I would have sworn a smile or a half smile
accompanied the words, but it was too dark to be sure; and when I leaned
forward to look, Euphrosyne drew back.

"Then you mustn't go," said I decisively, "I can't afford to lose you,"

"But if you let me go, I could let you go," she cried.

"Could you? Without asking Constantine? Besides, it's my island, you
see."

"It's not," she cried, with a stamp of her foot. And without more she
walked straight by me and disappeared over the ledge of rock. Two
minutes later I saw her figure defined against the sky, a black shadow
on the deep gray ground. Then she disappeared. I set my face straight
for the cottage under the summit of the hill. I knew that I had only to
go straight, and I must come to the little plateau, scooped out of the
hillside, on which the cottage stood. I found not a path, but a sort of
rough track that led in the desired direction, and along this I made my
way very cautiously. At one point it was joined at right angles by
another track, from the side of the hill where the main road across the
island lay. This, of course, afforded an approach to the cottage without
passin