true."

"And because it's true, and because we both know it to be true, neither one
of us can draw back. We _cannot_ draw back if we would. Suppose I said to
you: 'Coquenil, I like you, I'm going to let you go free.' What would you
reply? You would say: 'Baron de Heidelmann-Bruck, I'm much obliged, but, as
an honest man, I tell you that, as soon as I am free, I shall proceed to
have this enormous fortune you have been wickedly enjoying taken from you
and given to its rightful owner.' Isn't that about what you would say?"

"I suppose it is," answered M. Paul.

"You know it is, and you would also say: 'Baron de Heidelmann-Bruck, I
shall not only take this fortune from you and make you very poor instead of
very rich, but I shall denounce you as a murderer and shall do my best to
have you marched out from a cell in the Roquette prison some fine morning,
about dawn, between a jailer and a priest, with your legs roped together
and your shirt cut away at the back of the neck and then to have you bound
against an upright plank and tipped forward gently under a forty-pound
knife'--you see I know the details--and then, phsst! the knife falls and
behold the head of De Heidelmann-Bruck in one basket and his body in
another! That would be your general idea, eh?"

"Yes, it would," nodded the other.

"Ah!" smiled the baron. "You see how I have protected myself _against my
own weakness_. I must destroy you or be destroyed. _I am forced_, M.
Coquenil, to end my friendly tolerance of your existence."

"I see," murmured M. Paul. "If I hadn't read that diary, your nerve would
have been a little dulled for this--business." He motioned meaningly toward
the shadows.

"That's it."

"Whereas now the thing _has_ to be done and--you'll do it."

"Exactly! Exactly!" replied the baron with the pleasure one might show at a
delicate compliment.

For some moments the two were silent, then M. Paul asked gravely: "How soon
will the girl be here?"

"She's undoubtedly here now. She is waiting outside." He pointed to a
heavily barred iron door.

"Does she know it was a trick, about the ring?"

"Not yet."

Again there was a silence. Coquenil hesitated before he said with an
effort: "Do you think it's necessary to--to include _her_ in this--affair?"

The baron thought a moment. "I think I'd better make a clean job of it."

"You mean _both?_"

"Yes."

They seemed to understand by half words, by words not spoken, by little
signs, as brok