you will tell them the truth ?" he said, in small, quavering voice.
Sir Oliver turned and considered him more attentively.
"A God's name, Lal, what's in thy mind now ?" he asked, almost roughly.
"Tell them the truth?
Why, of course--but only as it concerns myself.
You're not supposing that I shall tell them it was you?
You'll not be accounting me capable of that ?" "What other way is there ?" Sir Oliver explained the matter.

The explanation brought Lionel relief.
But this relief was ephemeral.

Further reflection presented a new fear to him.

It came to him that if Sir Oliver cleared himself, of necessity his own implication must follow.

His terrors very swiftly magnified a risk that in itself was so slender as to be entirely negligible.