"Helping him to escape?" A spasm crossed the blind man's face.
"He said not; he--he was following the men who shot Cousin Wallace."
The blind man lay for an instant still. "Tell me," he commanded finally.
She told him, beginning with her discovery of Eaton in the garage and ending with his leaving her and with Donald Avery's finding her in the motor; and now she held back one word only--his name which he had told her, Hugh. Her father listened intently; when she had finished, he made no move, no comment, no reproach. She had seated herself on the chair beside his bed; she looked away, then back to him.
"That is not all," she said; and she told him of her expedition with Eaton to the ravine before the attack in the house.
"You and Mr. Eaton appear to have become rather well acquainted, Harriet," he said. "Has he told you nothing about himself which you have not told me? You have seen nothing concerning him, which you have not told?"
Her mind went quickly back to the polo game; she felt a flush, which his blind eyes could not see, dyeing her cheeks and forehead.
"No," she answered. She was aware that he did not accept the denial, that he knew she was concealing something.
She put her hands to her face; then she drew them quickly away. "Nothing," she said steadily.
The blind man waited for a moment; he put out his hand and pressed the bell which called the steward. Neither spoke until the steward had come.
"Fairley," Santoine said then, quietly, "Miss Santoine and I have just agreed that for the present all reports regarding the pursuit of the men who entered the study last night are to be made direct to me, not through Miss Santoine or Mr. Avery."
She still sat silent after the steward had gone; she thought for an instant her father had forgotten her presence; then he moved slightly.
She got up and left him, and went to her own rooms; she did not pretend to herself that she could rest. She bathed and dressed and went downstairs. The library had windows facing to the west; she went in there and stood looking out. Somewhere to the west was Eaton, alone, wounded; she knew she need not think of him yet as actively hunted, only watched; with daylight the hunt would begin. Would he be able to avoid the watchers and escape before the actual hunt for him began?