His eyes were fixed upon his guest's.

He seemed genuinely interested.

Francis, glancing away for a moment, was suddenly conscious of a new horror.

The woman had leaned a little forward in her easy-chair until she had attained almost a crouching position.

Her eyes seemed to be measuring the distance from where she sat to that quivering thread of steel.
"You see, Ledsam," his host went on, "that point driven now at that angle would go clean through the vital part of my heart.