“My dear Engleton!” he began.

“What the devil do you want with me at this time of night?” Engleton interrupted.  “Have you come down to see how I amuse myself during the long evenings?  Perhaps you would like to come and play cut-throat.  I’ll play you for what stakes you like, and thank you for coming, if you’ll leave the door open and let me breathe a little better air.”

“It is your own fault that you are here,” Cecil de la Borne declared.  “It is all your cursed obstinacy.  Listen!  I tell you once more that what you saw, or fancied you saw, was a mistake.  Forget it.  Give your word of honour to forget it, never to allude to it at any time in your life, and you can walk out of here a free man.”

Engleton nodded.

“I have no doubt of it,” he answered.  “The worst of it is that nothing in the world would induce me to forego the pleasure I promise myself, before very long, too, of giving to the whole world the story of your infamy.  I am not tractable to-night.  You had better go away, both of you.  I am more likely to fight.”

Forrest sat down on the edge of a chest.

“Engleton,” he said, “don’t be a fool.  It can do you no particular good to ruin Cecil here and myself, just because you happen to be suspicious.  Let that drop.  Tell us that you have decided to let it drop, and the world can take you into its arms again.”

“I refuse,” Engleton answered.  “I refuse once and for always.  I tell you that I have made up my mind to see you punished for this.  How I get out I don’t care, but I shall get out, and when I do, you two will be laid by the heels.”

“We came here to-night,” Forrest said slowly, “prepared to compromise with you.”

“There is no compromise,” Engleton answered fiercely.  “There is nothing which you could offer which could repay me for the horror of the nights you have left me to shiver here in this d—­d vault.  Don’t flatter yourself that I shall ever forget it.  I stay on because I cannot escape, but I would sooner stay here for ever than beg for mercy from either of you.”

“Upon my word,” Forrest declared, “our friend is quite a hero.”

“I am hero enough, at any rate,” Engleton answered, “to refuse to bargain with you.  Get out, both of you, before I lose my temper.”

Forrest came a little further into the room.  The thunder of the sea seemed almost above their heads.  The little lamp on the table by Engleton’s side gave little more than a weird, unnatural light around the circle in which he sat.

“That isn’t quite all that we came to say,” Forrest remarked coldly.  “To tell you the truth we have had enough of playing jailer.”

“I can assure you,” Engleton answered, “that I have had equally enough of being your prisoner.”

“We are agreed, then,” Forrest continued smoothly.  “You will probably be relieved when I tell you that we have decided to end it.”