"And your mind is made up not to obey orders?" he asked, after a moment's
thought.

"I cannot lift a hand against my country, monsieur."

"Place him under arrest," he said quietly, to the man who had brought me
there. "I will see to him later;" and I had but exchanged one imprisonment
for another.

That was as dismal a night as ever I spent, with no ray of hope to lighten
my darkness, and only the feeling that I could have done no other, to keep
me from breaking down entirely.

What the result would be I could not tell, but from the captain's point of
view I thought he would be justified in shooting me, and would probably do
so as a warning to the rest. He evidently did not believe a word I said,
and I could not greatly blame him.

I thought of them all at home, but mostly of my mother and of Carette. I
had little expectation of ever seeing them again, but I was sure they would
not have had me act otherwise. It was what my grandfather would have done,
placed as I was, and no man could do better than that. Most insistently my
thoughts were of Carette and those bright early days on Sercq, and black as
all else was, those remembrances shone like jewels in my mind. And when at
times I thought of Torode and his stupendous treachery, my heart was like
to burst with helpless rage. I scarcely closed my eyes, and in the morning
felt old and weary.

About midday they came for me, and I was content that the end had come.
They led me to the waist of the ship, where the whole company was