"
Saltash was smiling. His glance shot towards Toby, and came back to Jake
with a certain royal arrogance that held its own without effort. "In
other words, you wish--Lady Saltash--to leave us?" he questioned easily.
"I'm not going," said Toby quickly, with nervous decision.
Her hands were tightly clasped in front of her. She stood as one strung
to the utmost limit of resistance.
Jake did not again look at her. His eyes were upon Saltash, and they
never wavered. "Alone with you," he repeated, with grim insistence.
Saltash regarded him curiously. His mouth twitched mockingly as he put
the cigarette between his lips. He held out the case to Jake in mute
invitation.
Jake's look remained fixed. He ignored the action, and the case snapped
shut in Saltash's hand with a sharp sound that seemed to denote a
momentary exasperation. But Saltash's face still retained the monkey-like
expression of calculated mischief habitual to it.
"Bunny with you?" he enquired casually, producing a match-box.
"No." Very quietly came Jake's answer. "I have come to see you--alone."
Saltash lighted his cigarette, and blew a careless cloud of smoke. "Are
you proposing to shoot me?" he asked, after a pause.
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