think you of
how this plot originated; who suggested, who carried it on,--ay, and
where it stands at this very moment. That you yourself are as nothing
in it; the breath that made can still unmake you; and that I have but
to declare you an impostor and a cheat,--hard words, but you will have
them,--and the law will deal with you as it knows how to deal with those
who trade on false pretences. Yours be the blame if I be pushed to such
reprisals!"

"And what if I defied you, Count Ysaffich?" said I, boldly.

"If you but dared to do it!" said he, with a menace of his clenched
hand.

"Now listen to me calmly," said I; "and there is the more need of calm,
since, possibly, these are the very last words that shall ever pass
between us. My claim can neither be aided nor opposed by you."

"Is the fellow mad?" exclaimed he, staring wildly at me.

"I am in my calm and sober senses," replied I, quietly.

"Then what say you to this bond?" said he, taking a paper from his
pocket-book. "Is this a written promise that if you succeed to the
fortune and estates of the late Walter Carew, you will pay me, Count
Anatole Ysaffich, one hundred thousand pounds?"

"I own every word of it," said I.

"And for what service is this the recompense? Answer me that."

"That I am indebted to you for having opened to me the path by which my
right was to be established."

"Say rather that by me was the fraud of a false name, and birth, and
rank first suggested; that from Gervois the courier I created you Carew
the gentleman. The whole scheme was and is my own. You are as nothing in
it."

Stupefied, almost stunned, by the outrageous insult of his words, I did
not speak, and he went on,--

"But you have not taken me unawares. I was not without my suspicion
that such an incident as this might arise. I foresaw at least its
possibility, and was prepared for it. Be advised, then, in time, since
if your foot was on the very threshold of that door you hope to call
your own, the power lies with me to drag you back again and proclaim you
to all the world a swindler."

My passion boiled over at the word, and I sprung towards him, I know not
with what thoughts of vengeance. He darted back suddenly, and gained the
door.

"If you had dared," said he, with a savage grin, "you had been a corpse
on that floor the minute after."

The shining blade of a stiletto glanced within his waistcoat as he
spoke. The next moment he had descended the stairs, and w