Page:Arthur Stringer - Gun Runner.djvu/117

 "I don't ask you to believe me now—it's not fair. But do you realise where you stand?"

The solemnity of her manner, more than her words, prompted McKinnon to ask: "Where do you think I stand?"

"Before danger you scarcely dream of," answered the young woman, returning his gaze. "It's not so much that you have formed an alliance with a criminal, an outlaw, who would have to face a fusilado the moment he was caught in Guariqui. But it's the fact that he's as treacherous with his friends as with his foes. You have declared yourself his partner. He will hold you to it. He will use this paper you signed as a proof that you accepted hush-money, if it suits his purpose to do so. He will claim you agreed to work with him. He will hold this over you and force you to act for him."

"But why should I stand for coercion like that?" asked the undisturbed McKinnon.

"What would you do? You can't go to your captain; nor to your company. It's too late for that. You've cut yourself off from them. But that isn't the real danger. The real danger is that Ganley's the actual head of the revolutionary Junta, and that he can now show that you, too, are one of them!"

"That I'm one of them?" almost laughed the other.