e to ask you not for a
reward, but for one word."

"A word?"

"A word, a promise, and an oath."

"If it be compatible with my duties."

"Certainly!" said the stranger. "We conspirators are honest people
enough, but we are prudent, and used to secrecy. We never make
revelations without exacting a double security."

"That of honor!"

"And displaying the dagger as the certain reward of treachery."

"Stop, sir!" said M. H----, rising, and evidently enraged at the daring
of the stranger. "You forget where you are; no one but myself makes
threats here; assume, therefore, another tone; for sorry as I should be
not to avail myself of your offers, I must, if you persist, terminate
our interview at once. But," continued he, "what is required of me?"

"I have told you--an oath. Here it is. You will swear on this," and he
took a crucifix from his bosom, "that neither in person, nor otherwise,
will you ever attempt to discover the person in behalf of whom I treat.
You will swear that when you have been informed of the facts which I
shall point out to you, when you shall have received proof of the
culpability of certain men, you will cause them to be arrested and give
them no clue to, and make no revelation of, the means by which you
acquired your information."

"But how will the man who is to furnish this information treat with us?"

"Through me alone," said the stranger, "and I will allow you to be
ignorant of nothing. In a few words--I will be his interpreter--the soul
of his body, the action of his thought. Here," continued he, again
presenting the crucifix to M. H----," an oath for such services is not
too much to ask. You do not often get information at so cheap a rate.
The form of the oath will doubtless appear strange to you, but I am a
native of a land where oaths are taken on the cross alone."

"So be it," said M. H----, who, as he listened to the man, reflected on
the small importance of the conditions imposed on him, which did not
demand that he should act against the _Vente_ or associations, until
there was no doubt of their guilt. "So be it; I accept. I swear that I
will never seek to ascertain of whom you are the agent, whether in
person or through others." He placed his hand on the crucifix.

"_Rely then on him--rely on me_," said the stranger.

"Why do you not speak now?" said M. H----.

"_Because it is necessary to give the fruit time to ripen before we
gather it_," said the mysterious stranger; and