ng. I am as bad a patriot as you are, and I am
a coward as well." And he invoked the whole Pantheon to witness his
self-denunciation. "Only, you see, I count for something: and if they
take me and hang me, why, there it is! Monsieur, we must find some other
way. Forgive the intrusion. Adieu!" He held out his enormous hand..

Le Chapelier stood hesitating, crestfallen.

"You understand, Andre? I am sorry that..."

"Say no more, please. Come and see me soon again. I would press you to
remain, but it is striking nine, and the first of my pupils is about to
arrive."

"Nor would I permit it," said Danton. "Between us we must resolve the
riddle of how to extinguish M. de La Tour d'Azyr and his friends."

"Who?"

Sharp as a pistol-shot came that question, as Danton was turning away.
The tone of it brought him up short. He turned again, Le Chapelier with
him.

"I said M. de La Tour d'Azyr."

"What has he to do with the proposal you were making me?"

"He? Why, he is the phlebotomist in chief."

And Le Chapelier added. "It is he who killed Lagron."

"Not a friend of yours, is he?" wondered Danton.

"And it is La Tour d'Azyr you desire me to kill?" asked Andre-Louis very
slowly, after the manner of one whose thoughts are meanwhile pondering
the subject.

"That's it," said Danton. "And not a job for a prentice hand, I can
assure you."

"Ah, but this alters things," said Andre-Louis, thinking aloud. "It
offers a great temptation."

"Why, then...?" The Colossus took a step towards him again.

"Wait!" He put up his hand. Then with chin sunk on his breast, he paced
away to the window, musing.

Le Chapelier and Danton exchanged glances, then watched him, waiting,
what time he considered.

At first he almost wondered why he should not of his own accord have
decided upon some such course as this to settle that long-standing
account of M. de La Tour d'Azyr. What was the use of this great skill in
fence that he had come to acquire, unless he could turn it to account
to avenge Vilmorin, and to make Aline safe from the lure of her own
ambition? It would be an easy thing to seek out La Tour d'Azyr, put a
mortal affront upon him, and thus bring him to the point. To-day this
would be murder, murder as treacherous as that which La Tour d'Azyr
had done upon Philippe de Vilmorin; for to-day the old positions were
reversed, and it was Andre-Louis who might go to such an assignation
without a doubt of the issue. It was a moral