Part 89 (1/2)
Neeland spoke to her again, then followed her and took her arm.
”Where are you going?” he repeated, uneasily.
”I shall give myself up,” she replied in a dull voice.
”To whom?”
”To the Munic.i.p.als over there.”
”Give yourself up!” he repeated. ”Why?”
She pa.s.sed a slender hand over her eyes as though unutterably weary:
”Neeland,” she said, ”I am lost already.... And I am very tired.”
”What do you mean?” he demanded, drawing her back under a _porte-cochere_. ”You live somewhere, don't you? If it's safe for you to go back to your lodgings, I'll take you there. Is it?”
”No.”
”Well, then, I'll take you somewhere else. I'll find somewhere to take you----”
She shook her head:
”It is useless, Neeland. There is no chance of my leaving the city now--no chance left--no hope. It is simpler for me to end the matter this way----”
”Can't you go to the Turkish Emba.s.sy!”
She looked up at him in a surprised, hopeless way:
”Do you suppose that any Emba.s.sy ever receives a spy in trouble? Do you really imagine that any government ever admits employing secret agents, or stirs a finger to aid them when they are in need?”
”I told you I'd stand by you,” he reminded her bluntly.
”You have been--kind--Neeland.”
”And you have been very loyal to me, Scheherazade. I shall not abandon you.”
”How can you help me? I can't get out of this city. Wherever I go, now, it will be only a matter of a few hours before I am arrested.”
”The American Emba.s.sy. There is a _man_ there,” he reminded her.
She shrugged her naked shoulders:
”I cannot get within sight of the Trocadero before the secret police arrest me. Where shall I go? I have no pa.s.sport, no papers, not even false ones. If I go to the lodgings where I expected to find shelter it means my arrest, court martial, and execution in a _caserne_ within twenty-four hours. And it would involve others who trust me--condemn them instantly to a firing squad--if I am found by the police in their company!... No, Neeland. There's no hope for me. Too many know me in Paris. I took a risk in coming here when war was almost certain.
I took my chances, and lost. It's too late to whimper now.”
As he stared at her something suddenly brightened above them; and he looked up and saw the first sunbeam painting a chimney top with palest gold.
”Come,” he said, ”we've got to get out of this! We've got to go somewhere--find a taxicab and get under shelter----”