Could she but dare to stoop and clasp her arms about him, to hold him close against her heart and shield him, were it with her own body, from all further harm or wrong; surely then he would be Arthur to her again; surely then the day would break and the shadows flee away.
Ah, no, no!
How could he ever forget?
Was it not she who had cast him into hell--she, with her own right hand?
She had let the moment slip by.
He rose hastily and sat down by the table, covering his eyes with one hand and biting his lip as if he would bite it through.
Presently he looked up and said quietly:
"I am afraid I startled you."
She held out both her hands to him.
"Dear," she said, "are we not friends enough by now for you to trust me a little bit?
What is it?"
"Only a private trouble of my own.
I don't see why you should be worried over it."
"Listen a moment," she went on, taking his hand in both of hers to steady its convulsive trembling. "I have not tried to lay hands on a thing that is not mine to touch.
But now that you have given me, of your own free will, so much of your confidence, will you not give me a little more--as you would do if I were your sister.
Keep the mask on your face, if it is any consolation to you, but don't wear a mask on your soul, for your own sake."
He bent his head lower.
"You must be patient with me," he said.
"I am an unsatisfactory sort of brother to have, I'm afraid; but if you only knew---- I have been nearly mad this last week.
It has been like South America again.
And somehow the devil gets into me and----" He broke off.
"May I not have my share in your trouble?" she whispered at last.
His head sank down on her arm.
"The hand of the Lord is heavy."
PART III.
---------- CHAPTER I.
THE next five weeks were spent by Gemma and the Gadfly in a whirl of excitement and overwork which left them little time or energy for thinking about their personal affairs.
When the arms had been safely smuggled into Papal territory there remained a still more difficult and dangerous task: that of conveying them unobserved from the secret stores in the mountain caverns and ravines to the various local centres and thence to the separate villages.
The whole district was swarming with spies; and Domenichino, to whom the Gadfly had intrusted the ammunition, sent into Florence a messenger with an urgent appeal for either help or extra time.
The Gadfly had insisted that the work should be finished by the middle of June; and what with the difficulty of conveying heavy transports over bad roads, and the endless hindrances and delays caused by the necessity of continually evading observation, Domenichino was growing desperate.
"I am between Scylla and Charybdis," he wrote. "I dare not work quickly, for fear of detection, and I must not work slowly if we are to be ready in time.
Either send me efficient help at once, or let the Venetians know that we shall not be ready till the first week in July."
The Gadfly carried the letter to Gemma and, while she read it, sat frowning at the floor and stroking the cat's fur the wrong way.
"This is bad," she said. "We can hardly keep the Venetians waiting for three weeks."
"Of course we can't; the thing is absurd.
Domenichino m-might unders-s-stand that.
We must follow the lead of the Venetians, not they ours."
"I don't see that Domenichino is to blame; he has evidently done his best, and he can't do impossibilities."
"It's not in Domenichino that the fault lies; it's in the fact of his being one person instead of two.
We ought to have at least one responsible man to guard the store and another to see the transports off.
He is quite right; he must have efficient help."
"But what help are we going to give him?
We have no one in Florence to send."
"Then I m-must go myself."
She leaned back in her chair and looked at him with a little frown.
"No, that won't do; it's too risky."
"It will have to do if we can't f-f-find any other way out of the difficulty."
"Then we must find another way, that's all.
It's out of the question for you to go again just now."
An obstinate line appeared at the corners of his under lip.