"'The vessel is due back at the end of September, I believe, so Mr.Bulmer will not have long to wait.'" If, in the first instance, David had not been swept off his feet by the magnitude of the catastrophe, if he had not commenced the series of prevarications before the letter reached him, he might have adopted the only sane course and taken Bulmer fully into his confidence.

It was too late now.

Explanation was useless.

The only plea that occurred to him was more deadly than silence, since it was her knowledge of the contemplated crime that made Iris a stowaway.

He had never guessed how that knowledge was attained and the added mystery intensified his torture.
Dickey rose from the table.