ng that object.

For myself, I should have welcomed a cutthroat if it came as an
alternative to Constantine's society; but probably his wife would not
agree with me; and the conversation I had heard left me in little doubt
that her life was not safe. They could not have an epidemic, Vlacho had
prudently reminded his master; the island fever could not kill
Constantine's wife and our party all in a day or two. Men suspect such
obliging maladies, and the old lord had died of it, pat to the happy
moment, already. But if the thing could be done, if it could be so
managed that London, Paris, and the Riviera would find nothing strange
in the disappearance of one Madame Stefanopoulos and the appearance of
another, why, to a certainty, done the thing would be, unless I could
warn or save the woman in the cottage. But I did not see how to do
either. So (as I set out to confess) I dropped the subject. And when I
went to sleep I was thinking, not how to save Francesca, but how to
console Euphrosyne, a matter really of less urgency, as I should have
seen had not the echo of that sad little cry still filled my ears.

The news that Hogvardt brought me, when I woke in the morning and was
enjoying a slice of cow steak, by no means cleared my way. An actual
attack did not seem imminent--I fancy these fierce islanders were not
too fond of our revolvers--but the house was, if I may use the term,
carefully picketed; and that both before and behind. Along the road that
approached it in front, there stood sentries at intervals. They were
stationed just out of range of our only effective long-distance weapon,
but it was evident that egress on that side was barred; and the same was
the case on the other. Hogvardt had seen men moving in the wood, and had
heard their challenges to one another, repeated at regular intervals. We
were shut off from the sea; we were shut off from the cottage. A
blockade would reduce us as well as an attack. I had nothing to offer
except the release of Euphrosyne. And to release Euphrosyne would in all
likelihood not save us, while it would leave Constantine free to play
out his ghastly game to its appointed end.

I finished my breakfast in some perplexity of spirit. Then I went and
sat in the hall, expecting that Euphrosyne would appear from her room
before long. I was alone, for the rest were engaged in various
occupations, Hogvardt being particularly busy over a large handful of
hunting-knives that he had gleaned