"
"It seems so, indeed," he answered with a cool effrontery past crediting in
one who but a moment ago had looked so pitiful. "What do you seek at
Canaples?"
"Many things, Marquis. You among others."
"You have come to murder me," he cried, and again alarm overspread his
countenance.
"Hoity, toity, Marquis! We do not all follow the same trade. Who talks of
murder? Faugh!"
Again he took a step towards me, but again the nozzle of my pistol drove
him back. To have pistoled him there and then as he deserved would have
brought the household about my ears, and that would have defeated my
object. To have fallen upon him and slain him with silent steel would have
equally embarrassed me, as you shall understand anon.
"You and I had a rendezvous at St. Sulpice des Reaux," I said calmly, "to
which you came with a band of hired assassins. For this you deserve to be
shot like the dog you are. But I have it in my heart to be generous to
you," I added in a tone of irony. "Come, take up your sword."
"To what purpose?"
"Do you question me? Take up your sword, man, and do my bidding; thus
shall you have a slender chance of life.
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