She sighed.  “I don’t expect friendship,” she answered.  “You and I are in deep water, and must find a straw that may float us all!  If I can help you to escape out of the country I will.  If you can help me, you must!  If you don’t escape there are worse things in store for you than you imagine!  If you tell your secret now, they intend to prevent your telling it to any one else afterward!  And unless you tell they intend to take terrible steps to compel you!  As for me—­they have discovered that after all I know nothing, and am of no further use to them!  They have not said so, but it is very clear to me how the land lies.  Professor Schillingschen is drunk to-night; he came home with his car and mouth bleeding, and has plied the whisky bottle freely ever since until he fell asleep an hour and a half ago.  He boasted over his cups. 
 They are simply using this long wait for Major Schunk, who is supposed
to be coming from the coast, to gather additional evidence against you. 
 They have men out following your trail back by the way you came, and
if they can find no genuine evidence they will invent what they need; the purpose is to get you legally behind the bars; and if you ever come out again alive that would not be their fault!”

“What do you propose?” asked Fred.

“Escape!” she answered excitedly.  Then another thought made her clench her fists.  “Is it possible you told Professor Schillingschen your secret to-day?  Did one of you tell him?  Is that why he is drunk?”

She saw by our faces that that fear was groundless, but a greater one, that she might not be able to convince us, seized her next and she made such an excited gesture that the shawl she wore over her head and shoulders fell away and her long hair came tumbling down like a witch’s.

“Listen!  There is nothing that you men from your point of view could say too bad about me!  I know!  I have been in the pay of Germany for many years, but what you don’t know is how they got me in the toils and kept me in, dragging me down from one degradation to another!  They have dragged me down so far at last that I am not much more use to them.  If we were in British territory they would simply expose me to the British government and save themselves the trouble of ending my career.  They did that to Mrs. Winstin Willoughby, and Lord James Rait, and fifty others; it was so easy to put incriminating evidence against them in the hands of the public prosecutor.  Lord James Rait died in Dartmoor Prison—­a common felon.  I shall not!  But believe me—­I am certain as I sit here that they only wait for my return to British East!  To have me murdered here might start inconvenient rumors that would lead to unanswerable questions!  It was proposed to me to-day that I should return to British East on the launch!”

“Then why talk about escaping?” Fred wondered.  “Why not go?”

“Because,” she hissed emphatically, “don’t you see, you stupid!—­if they send me back it will be to my doom!  My one chance is to escape from their clutches—­get into touch with British officials—­and save the situation by telling my own tale first!”