"
He looked hurt and indignant.
"Now, look here," he remonstrated, "what have I done but give you a
friendly hint not to get in bad? But maybe I was too vague about it; you
just listen to a few facts. I'll tell you who that young lady is and who
her people are and what she wants on the other side--"
"No, you won't!" I declared. My voice sounded savage. I was recalling
how she had begged the extra of me, and how it had contained a full
account of Franz von Blenheim, the kaiser's man. "The young lady's name
and affairs are no concern of mine. If you know anything you can keep it
to yourself."
As we glared at each other like two hostile catamounts, a steward
relieved the tension by running toward us down the deck.
"_Signori, un momento, per piacere_!" he called as he came. The British
officers were on board, he forthwith informed us, and were demanding,
in accordance with the martial law now reigning at Gibraltar, a sight of
each passenger and his passport before the ship should proceed.
CHAPTER VI
THUMBSCREWS
The salon of conversation, as the mirrored, gilded, and highly varnished
apartment was grandiloquently termed, had been the very spot chosen for
our presumably not very terrible ordeal.
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