. Before we finally leave Paris tomorrow we will explain to
the prisoner that at the first attempt to escape on his part, at the
slightest suspicion that he has tricked us for his own ends or is
leading us into an ambush--at the slightest suspicion, I say--you,
citizen Heron, will order his friend first, and then Marguerite Blakeney
herself, to be summarily shot before his eyes."

Heron gave a long, low whistle. Instinctively he threw a furtive,
backward glance at the prisoner, then he raised his shifty eyes to his
colleague.

There was unbounded admiration expressed in them. One blackguard had met
another--a greater one than himself--and was proud to acknowledge him as
his master.

"By Lucifer, citizen Chauvelin," he said at last, "I should never have
thought of such a thing myself."

Chauvelin put up his hand with a gesture of self-deprecation.

"I certainly think that measure ought to be adequate," he said with a
gentle air of assumed modesty, "unless you would prefer to arrest the
woman and lodge her here, keeping her here as an hostage."

"No, no!" said Heron with a gruff laugh; "that idea does not appeal
to me nearly so much as the other. I should not feel so secure on the
way.... I should always be thinking that that cursed woman had been
allowed to escape.... No! no! I would rather keep her under my own
eye--just as you suggest, citizen Chauvelin... and under the prisoner's,
too," he added with a coarse jest. "If he did not actually see her,
he might be more ready to try and save himself at her expense. But, of
course, he could not see her shot before his eyes. It is a perfect plan,
citizen, and does you infinite credit; and if the Englishman tricked
us," he concluded with a fierce and savage oath, "and we did not find
Capet at the end of the journey, I would gladly strangle his wife and
his friend with my own hands."

"A satisfaction which I would not begrudge you, citizen," said Chauvelin
dryly. "Perhaps you are right... the woman had best be kept under your
own eye... the prisoner will never risk her safety on that, I would
stake my life. We'll deliver our final 'either--or' the moment that
she has joined our party, and before we start further on our way. Now,
citizen Heron, you have heard my advice; are you prepared to follow it?"

"To the last letter," replied the other.

And their two hands met in a grasp of mutual understanding--two hands
already indelibly stained with much innocent blood, more