out, then I, too, will say what _I_ know. If I do that,
instead of being deported -- that is, instead of being
sent comfortably back to Berlin, to your niece and
her husband, who surely will look after you and make
your old age comfortable -- then I swear to you before
God _that_you_will_hang!"_
"Hang? But I have done nothing!"
Anna was now almost in a state of collapse, and he
saw his mistake.
"You are in no real danger at all if you will only
do exactly what I tell you," he declared, impressively.
"Yes," she faltered. "Yes, Herr Hegner, indeed
I will obey you."
He looked round him hastily. "Never, never call
me that!" he exclaimed. "And now listen quite quietly
to what I have to say. Remember you are in no
danger -- no danger at all -- if you follow my orders."
She looked at him dumbly.
"You are to say that the parcels came to you from
your nephew in Germany. It will do him no harm.
The English police cannot reach him."
"But I've already said," she confessed, distractedly,
"that they were brought to me by a friend of his."
"It is a pity you said that, but it does not much
matter. The one thing you must conceal at all hazards
is that you received any money from me. Do you
understand that, Frau Bauer? Have you said anything
of that?"
"No," she said slowly. "No, I have said nothing
of that."
He fancied there was a look of hesitation on her
face. As a matter of fact we know that Anna had
not betrayed Alfred Head. But that she had not done
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