"Why, I tell you that a dozen of us in Derbyshire--" He broke off once more.

"I may not tell you," he said, "I must ask leave first." A light began to glimmer before Robin's mind; the light broadened suddenly and intensely, and his whole soul leapt to meet it.
"Do you mean-- ?" And then he, too, broke off, well knowing enough, though not all of, what was meant.
* * * * * It was quiet here within this room, in spite of the village street outside.

It was dinner-time, and all were within doors or out at their affairs; and except for the stamp of a horse now and again, and the scream of the wind in the keyhole and between the windows, there was little to hear.

And in the lad's soul was a tempest.
He knew well enough now what his friend meant, though nothing of the details; and from the secrecy and excitement of the young man's manner he understood what the character of his dealings would likely be, and towards those dealings his whole nature leaped as a fish to the water.
Was it possible that this way lay the escape from his own torment of conscience?
Yet he must put a question first, in honesty.
"Tell me this much," he said in a low voice.

"Do you mean that this ...
this affair will be against men's lives ...