"Ah, you do not know perhaps what I can tell about
you!"

He came nearer to her, and in a hissing whisper
went on: "I can tell how it was through you that
a certain factory in Flanders was shelled, and eighty
Englishmen were killed. And if I tell that, they will
hang you!"

"But that is not true," said Anna stoutly. "So you
could not say that!"

"It _is_ true." He spoke with a kind of ferocious
energy that carried conviction, even to her. "It is
absolutely true, and easily proved. You showed a
letter -- a letter from Mr. Jervis Blake. In that letter
was information which led directly to the killing of
those eighty English soldiers, and to the injury to Mr.
Jervis Blake which lost him his foot."

"What is that you say?" Anna's voice rose to a
scream of horror -- of incredulous, protesting horror.
"Unsay, do unsay what you have just said, kind Mr.
Head!"

"How can I unsay what is the fact?" he answered
savagely. "Do not be a stupid fool! You ought to
be glad you performed such a deed for the Fatherland."

"Not Mr. Jervis Blake," she wailed out. "Not the
bridegroom of my child!"

"The bridegroom of your child was engaged in
killing good Germans; and now he will never kill
any Germans any more. And it is _you,_ Frau Bauer,
who shot off his foot. If you betray me, all that will
be known, and they will not deport you, they will
hang you!"

To this she said nothing, and he touched her

[[348]]

p347 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p348w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p349

v?