“No,” she declared, vehemently. “Marry a thief⁠—a blackmailer⁠—God knows what⁠—no!”

He flung her roughly from him. He had heard harder words in his life and had met them sneering and unmoved. But somehow to hear them from her stung him.

“You think you won’t⁠—now,” he said viciously. “But you will, my girl. If you think you can set your silly obstinacy against my will, my dear, and win, you are booked for trouble. I have given you your chance and I don’t permit man nor woman to stand in my way. Bigger people than you have learnt that.”

She returned no answer. The car turned from the smooth road, and slowed as it took a rough track through a windswept marshland. In a little it came to a halt.

“Here we are,” said Larry Hughes.