Steele was readily found and came back with me. He was as unlike himself
as she was strange. But when they again faced each other, then they were
indeed new to me.
"I want to know--what you must do," she said. Steele told her briefly,
and his voice was stern.
"Those--those criminals outside of my own family don't concern me now.
But can my father and cousin be taken without bloodshed? I want to know
the absolute truth." Steele knew that they could not be, but he could
not tell her so. Again she appealed to me. Thus my part in the situation
grew harder. It hurt me so that it made me angry, and my anger made me
cruelly frank.
"No. It can't be done. Sampson and Wright will be desperately hard to
approach, which'll make the chances even. So, if you must know the
truth, it'll be your father and cousin to go under, or it'll be Steele
or me, or any combination luck breaks--or all of us!"
Her self-control seemed to fly to the four winds. Swift as light she
flung herself down before Steele, against his knees, clasped her arms
round him. "Good God! Miss Sampson, you mustn't do that!" implored
Steele. He tried to break her hold with shaking hands, but he could not.
"Listen! Listen!" she cried, and her voice made Steele, and Sally and me
also, still as the rock behind us.
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