Up against it, yes, but not taken, that's the key point.
Leaning against the cliff, having pushed a rock into the water, Professor Mortimer does his best to hide himself from the gaze of Olrik's men, his pursuers.

Good, they have not seen him, but hell, they are leaving a sentry. Mortimer silently adjusts his position. No need to be spotted now. It only remains to wait quietly until they've given up on finding a body and stop the surveillance.

Mechanically, the professor takes out his pipe and ... "I cannot smoke either."He tells himself. "I would risk raising the alarm. Damn Olrik!"

Just wait. Mortimer tries to calm his heart - beating fast. He most likely just broke his own speed record, and he has had to run several hundred meters over rough terrain. Love gives you wings.

Panic. His breathing quickens and he opens his mouth to make it less noisy. It's really, really not the time to panic. He makes the effort to think in the midst of a flood of confused thoughts.

The professor breathes slowly and regains his self-control.

Good Lord, but he has chosen a very poor moment to realize something so tremendous. He likes Francis Blake; impossible to doubt it, but since when ?

It's impossible to say. When he checks his memories, they take on a hue they never had before. "I'm really in for it," thinks the professor. "If a scientist like me cannot even trust his head-"

Francis. A man! And Mortimer who had only looked at women before! He had never had the slightest suspicion of one day experiencing this kind of feeling for someone of his own sex. Mortimer shivers, uncomfortable. Merely to think of a less innocent contact with his friend excites him and knots up his stomach, tenses him and turns his bones to jelly. My God, he had not felt anything like this since he was seventeen. A second spring, now ? And such a change!

Yet no other man would tempt Mortimer even remotely. Oh, Mortimer appreciates beauty in a man as well; an athletic body, a sincere face, a frank look. Mortimer smiles. He compares them all to his friend the captain. Francis Blake is for him the epitome of beauty. Why should that surprise him?

The revelation he has just had is overwhelming. It will change his life. Yet Mortimer is surprised to be so little disturbed. Then again, he is no longer young, he has some experience, he is well traveled, and he has worked alongside all kinds of people. This may explain it. Although homosexuality is considered immoral in his native culture, he knows as an amateur archaeologist that it is not so all over the world, and that it has been different at different times and for different civilizations, and as a scientist keeping abreast of advances in various fields, he knows that even if medicine regards such behavior diseased, homosexual relations are not exclusive to the human species.

Blake, hum. But after all, what does it change?

Nothing, absolutely nothing. Mortimer is not a pessimist, but Blake is so perfect that it is impossible for him to be facing the same dilmna, It would be immoral, illegal, and frowned upon by the secret service. That would never do for Blake.

Perhaps, blind as he is to many things, did he just not see anything? Mortimer cannot help but hope. Hmm, he will have to check.

But there's Virginia Campbell, he thinks, suddenly depressed and consumed with jealousy.

Ha! All this time he was really jealous! Unbelievable.

"Come," he says, "think no more."He listens attentively to what is going on above him, but the guard is still there. "No need to rack your brains, man, you are missing data," he scolds himself.

Action, that's what he needs. To occupy his body and keep his mind distracted. He can't wait for the way to clear!

And Francis? Hopefully he can also escape his pursuers! Mortimer silently reformulates his wish: may it be that Francis Blake does not die!