He seems only too
anxious to try to get to you as soon as possible. I repeat, ships and
men have been made safe and I don't mean to give you up dead or alive.
"You are quick in taking the point," said Lingard in a dull voice, while
Mrs. Travers, with the sheet of paper gripped in her hand, looked into
his face with anxious eyes. "He has been smart and no mistake."
"He didn't know," murmured Mrs. Travers.
"No, he didn't know. But could I take everybody into my confidence?"
protested Lingard in the same low tone. "And yet who else could I trust?
It seemed to me that he must have understood without being told. But he
is too young. He may well be proud according to his lights. He has done
that job outside very smartly--damn his smartness! And here we are with
all our lives depending on my word--which is broken now, Mrs. Travers.
It is broken."
Mrs. Travers nodded at him slightly.
"They would sooner have expected to see the sun and the moon fall out of
the sky," Lingard continued with repressed fire. Next moment it seemed
to have gone out of him and Mrs. Travers heard him mutter a disconnected
phrase. . . . "The world down about my ears."
"What will you do?" she whispered.
"What will I do?" repeated Lingard, gently. "Oh, yes--do. Mrs. Travers,
do you see that I am nothing now? Just nothing.
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