ho, with such a knife
in his hand, could not, without a moment's parley, make it do his work.'

'The man is a hired assassin,' Sarrasin declared.

'Very likely,' the Dictator replied calmly; 'but we can't convict him of
it, and we had better let him go his blundering way.' The Dictator had
meanwhile been riveting his eyes on the face of the captive--if we may
call him so--anxious to find out from his expression whether he
understood Spanish. If he seemed to understand Spanish then the affair
would be a little more serious. It might lead to the impression that he
was really mixed up in South American affairs, and that he fancied he
had partisan wrongs to avenge. But the man's face remained
imperturbable. He evidently understood nothing. It was not even, the
Dictator felt certain, that he had been put on his guard by his former
lapse into unlucky consciousness when Mrs. Sarrasin tried him and
trapped him with the Sicilian _patois_. No, there was a look of dull
curiosity on his face, and that was all.

'We'll keep the knife?' Sarrasin asked.

'Yes; I think you had better keep the knife. It may possibly come in as
a _piece de justification_ one of these days. What's the value of your
knife?' he asked in English, suddenly turning on the captive with a
stern voice and manner that awed the creature.

'It's well worth a quid, governor.'

'Yes; I should think it was. There's a quid and a half for you, and go
your ways. We have agreed--my friends and I--to let you off this time,
although we have every reason to believe that you meant murder.'

'Oh, governor!'

'If you try it again,' the Dictator said, 'you will forfeit your life
whether you succeed or fail. Now get away--and set us free from your
presence.'

The man ran along the road leading eastward--ran with the speed of some
hunted animal, the path re-echoing to the sound of his flying feet.
Ericson broke into a laugh.

'You have in all probability saved my life,' the Dictator said. 'You
two----'

'All _her_ doing,' Sarrasin interposed.

'I think I understand it all,' Ericson went on. 'I have no doubt this
was meant as an attempt. But it was a very bungling first attempt. The
planners, whoever they were, were anxious first of all to keep
themselves as far as possible out of responsibility and suspicion, and
instead of hiring a South American bravo, and so in a manner bringing it
home to themselves, they merely picked up and paid an ordinary Sicilian
stabber wh