Page:Walpole--portrait of man with red hair.djvu/301

 Dunbar looked up. "I expect he went home after we went off."

"No," said Harkness, "he was to be there till six. He told me. What's happened to him? At any rate he'll give the alarm if we don't turn up."

"No, he'll think we got safely off."

"Yes, I suppose he will. My God, it's five to six. Look here, stand up a moment."

They stood up.

"Let's take hands. Let's swear this. Whatever happens to us now, whether some of us survive or none, whether we die now or live happily ever afterwards, we'll be friends forever, nothing shall ever separate us, for better or worse we're together for always."

They swore it.

"And see here. If I don't come out of this don't have any regrets either of you. Don't think you brought me into this against my will. Don't think that whichever way it goes I regret a moment of it. You've given me the finest time."

Dunbar laughed. "I sort of feel we're going to have a chance yet. After all, he's been probably playing with us, trying to frighten us. There'll be nothing in it, you see. Anyway I'll get a crack at his skull, and now that I've got you, Hesther, I wouldn't give up this night for all the wealth of the Indies. I don't know about life or death. I've never thought much about it, to tell you the honest