Ilam, who seemed mentally to be quickly regaining his normal state, stood up and moved to the fireplace.
“Stand!” said Jetsam angrily, and he drew his revolver from his pocket. “I will know where that photograph is or I will hang for you. I shall not be the first man who has died in a good cause. Now, where is that photograph? Did you or your mother take it out of the box?”
“I took it out of the box,” snarled Ilam--“I--I--I--and my mother knew nothing.”
“And where is it?” asked Jetsam, smiling triumphantly.
“It is here,” Ilam cried, and he took a faded photograph from his breast pocket. “You never thought of searching me, eh? Ass!”
“No,” said Ilam; and with a sudden movement he stuck it in the fire.
Jetsam sprang towards him, and then fell back as if stunned. Jetsam was beaten, after all. He gave a sort of groan and walked to the other side of the room, as if in a dream. He had failed, and he meant to commit suicide. All his trouble, all his risks, had gone for nothing. He raised the revolver again, and no one in the room quite guessed the tragedy that was preparing for them. His finger was on the trigger.
Immediately behind him was a draught-screen, and the draught-screen began mysteriously to sink forward. It lodged lightly on his shoulders. He turned, the revolver at his temple; and round the screen, from behind it, appeared Rosie.
“Don’t do that,” she said calmly, and she took the revolver out of his unresisting hand.
Jetsam turned round, saw that the person who had so mysteriously interfered was Rosie herself, and sank down on a chair.
“You have done me an evil turn,” he breathed, at the same time with a gesture ordering the Soudanese to leave the room.
“I have saved your life,” she said simply.
“Yes,” he replied, with a trace of bitterness. “That is what I mean. You are not the first who has saved my life. And if the first saviour had refrained we should all have been happier now.”
“Do not say that,” she whispered. “I----”
“You--you would never have met me,” he said curtly.
“I am glad I have met you,” she retorted, bravely facing him.
“Ah!” he sighed. “And yet you play tricks on me! Yet you make promises to me and break them!”
“No, no,” she cried. “I only promised to go to the boat, and I would have gone to the boat afterwards.”