'All right. I never meant to hurt you—though I am no joker when it comes to it.'
He pulled up the leg of his pyjamas to exhibit the strapped knife. She glanced at it without moving her head, and murmured with scornful bitterness:
'Ah, yes—with that thing stuck in my side. In no other way.'
He shook his head with a shamefaced smile.
'Listen! I am quiet now. Straight—I am. I don't need to explain why—you know how it is. And I can see, now, this wasn't the way with you.'
She made no sound. Her still, upward gaze had a patient, mournfulness which troubled him like a suggestion of an inconceivable depth. He added thoughtfully:
'You are not going to make a noise about this silly try of mine?'
She moved her head the least bit.
'Jee-miny! You are a wonder—' he murmured earnestly, relieved more than she could have guessed.
Of course, if she had attempted to run out, he would have stuck the knife between her shoulders, to stop her screaming; but all the fat would have been in the fire, the business utterly spoiled, and the rage of the governor— especially when he learned the cause—boundless. A woman that does not make a noise after an attempt of that kind has tacitly condoned the offence. Ricardo had no small vanities. But clearly, if she would pass it over like this, then he could not be so utterly repugnant to her. He felt flattered. And she didn't seem afraid of him either. He already felt almost tender towards the girl—that plucky, fine girl who had not tried to run screaming from him.
'We shall be friends yet. I don't give you up. Don't think it. Friends as friends can be!' he whispered confidently. 'Jee-miny! You aren't a tame one. Neither am I. You will find that out before long.'
He could not know that if she had not run out, it was because that morning, under the stress of growing uneasiness at the presence of the incomprehensible visitors, Heyst had confessed to her that it was his revolver he had been looking for in the night; that it was gone, that he was a disarmed, defenceless man. She had hardly comprehended the meaning of his confession. Now she understood better what it meant. The effort of her self- control, her stillness, impressed Ricardo. Suddenly she spoke:
'What are you after?'
He did not raise his eyes. His hands reposing on his knees, his drooping head, something reflective in his pose, suggested the weariness of a simple soul, the fatigue of a mental rather than physical contest. He answered the direct question by a direct statement, as if he were too tired to dissemble:
'After the swag.'
The word was strange to her. The veiled ardour of her grey gaze from under the dark eyebrows never left Ricardo's.
'A swag?' she murmured quietly. 'What's that?'
'Why, swag, plunder—what your gentleman has been pinching right and left for years—the pieces. Don't you know? This!'
Without looking up, he made the motion of counting money into the palm of his hand. She lowered her eyes slightly to observe this bit of pantomime, but returned them to his face at once. Then, in a mere breath:
'How do you know anything about him?' she asked, concealing her puzzled alarm. 'What has it got to do with you?'
'Everything,' was Ricardo's concise answer, in a low, emphatic whisper. He reflected that this girl was really his best hope. Out of the unfaded impression of past violence there was growing the sort of sentiment which prevents a man from being indifferent to a woman he has once held in his arms—if even against her will—and still more so if she has pardoned the outrage. It becomes then a sort of bond. He felt positively the need to confide in her—a subtle trait of masculinity, this almost physical need of trust which can exist side by side with the most brutal readiness of suspicion.
'It's a game of grab—see?' he went on, with a new inflection of intimacy in his murmur. He was looking straight at her now.
'That fat, tame slug of a gin-slinger, Schomberg, put us up to it.'
So strong is the impression of helpless and persecuted misery, that the girl who had fought down a savage assault without faltering could not completely repress a shudder at the mere sound of the abhorred name.
Ricardo became more rapid and confidential:
'He wants to pay him off—pay both of you, at that; so he told me. He was hot after you. He would have given all he had into those hands of yours that have nearly strangled me. But you couldn't, eh? Nohow—what?' He paused. 'So, rather than—you followed a gentleman?'
He noticed a slight movement of her head and spoke quickly.
'Same here—rather than be a wage-slave. Only these foreigners aren't to be trusted. You're too good for him. A man that will rob his best chum?' She raised her head. He went on, well pleased with his progress, whispering hurriedly: 'Yes. I know all about him. So you may guess how he's likely to treat a woman after a bit!'
He did not know that he was striking terror into her breast now. Still the grey eyes remained fixed on him unmovably watchful, as if sleepy under the white forehead. She was beginning to understand. His words conveyed a definite, dreadful meaning to her mind, which he proceeded to enlighten further in a convinced murmur.
'You and I are made to understand each other. Born alike, bred alike, I guess. You are not tame. Same here! You have been chucked out into this rotten world of 'yporcrits. Same here!'
Her stillness, her appalled stillness, wore to him an air of fascinated attention. He asked abruptly:
'Where is it?'
She made an effort to breathe out:
