there in Judge Claiborne's garden; and you came up
here tonight with a plan to kill my man and then take your time to me.
Give me the mail, Oscar."

He opened the letters which Oscar had brought and scanned several that
bore a Paris postmark, and when he had pondered their contents a moment
he laughed and jumped from the table. He brought a portfolio from his
bedroom and sat down to write.

"Don't shoot the gentleman as long as he is quiet. You may even give him
a glass of whisky to soothe his feelings."

Armitage wrote:

* * * * *

"MONSIEUR:

"Your assassin is a clumsy fellow and you will do well to send him back
to the blacksmith shop at Toplica. I learn that Monsieur Durand,
distressed by the delay in affairs in America, will soon join you--is
even now aboard the _Tacoma_, bound for New York. I am profoundly
grateful for this, dear Monsieur, as it gives me an opportunity to
conclude our interesting business in republican territory without
prejudice to any of the parties chiefly concerned.

"You are a clever and daring rogue, yet at times you strike me as
immensely dull, Monsieur. Ponder this: should it seem expedient for me to
establish my identity--which I am sure interests you greatly--before
Baron von Marhof, and, we will add, the American Secretary of State, be
quite sure that I shall not do so until I have taken precautions against
your departure in any unseemly haste. I, myself, dear friend, am not
without a certain facility in setting traps."

* * * * *

Armitage threw down the pen and read what he had written with care. Then
he wrote as signature the initials F.A., inclosed the note in an envelope
and addressed it, pondered again, laughed and slapped his knee and went
into his room, where he rummaged about until he found a small seal
beautifully wrought in bronze and a bit of wax. Returning to the table he
lighted a candle, and deftly sealed the letter. He held the red scar on
the back of the envelope to the lamp and examined it with interest. The
lines of the seal were deep cut, and the impression was perfectly
distinct, of F.A. in English script, linked together by the bar of the F.

"Oscar, what do you recommend that we do with the prisoner?"

"He should be tied to a tree and shot; or, perhaps, it would be better to
hang him to the rafters in the kitchen. Yet he is heavy and might pull
down the roof."

"You are a bloodthirsty wr