, gasping. I had my finger before my lips.

"Can't you trust them now?" I whispered.

"Spying!" he hissed when he could find his tongue.

"What about you, Captain Ricardo?"

"It was my wife."

"Well, it was my friend and you're his enemy. And his enemy was armed to
the teeth," I added, handing him the big stick that he had left leaning
against the wall.

"That wasn't for him. This was," muttered Ricardo, lapping the lash
round his crop. "I was going to horsewhip him within an inch of his
life. And now that you know all about it, too, I've a damned good mind
to do it still!"

"There are several reasons why you won't," I assured him.

"You're his bully, are you?" he snarled.

"I'm whatever you choose to make me, Captain Ricardo. Already you've
consoled me for doing a thing I never dreamt of doing in my life
before."

"But, good God! I never dreamt of listening either. I was prepared for a
very different scene. And then--and then I thought perhaps I'd better
not make one after all! I thought it would only make things worse.
Things might have been worse still, don't you see?"

"Exactly. I think you behaved splendidly, all the same."

"But if you heard the whole thing----"

"I couldn't help myself. I found myself following you by pure chance.
Then I saw what you had in your hand."

With a common instinct for cover, we had drifted round to the other side
of the wall. And neither of us had raised his voice. But Ricardo never
had his eyes off me, as we played our tiny scene among the broken
columns, where Uvo and Mrs. Ricardo had just played theirs.

"Well, are you going to hold your tongue?" he asked me.

"If you hold yours," I answered.

"I mean--even as between you two!"

"That's just what I mean, Ricardo. If neither of us know what's
happened, nothing else need happen. 'Least said,' you know."

"Nothing whatever must be said. I'll trust you never to tell Delavoye,
and, if it makes you happier, you can trust me to say nothing to--to
anybody. It's my only chance," said Ricardo, hoarsely. "I've not been
all I might have been. I see it now. But perhaps ... it isn't ... too
late...."

And suddenly he seized me violently by the hand. Then I found myself
alone in the shadow of the wall which had once borne a fresco by
Nollikins, and I stood like a man awakened from a dream. In the
flattering moonlight, the sham survivals of the other century might have
been thousands of years old, their suburban setting s