an end, all goes well,'
he answered.

Mademoiselle had retired on our arrival, so that her brother and I were
for an hour or two this evening thrown together. I left him at liberty
to separate himself from me if he pleased, but he did not use the
opportunity. A kind of comradeship, rendered piquant by our peculiar
relations, had begun to spring up between us. He seemed to take an odd
pleasure in my company, more than once rallied me on my post of jailor,
would ask humorously if he might do this or that; and once even inquired
what I should do if he broke his parole.

'Or take it this way,' he continued flippantly, 'Suppose I had struck
you in the back this evening in that cursed swamp by the river, M. de
Berault? What then! PARDIEU, I am astonished at myself that I did not do
it. I could have been in Montauban within twenty-four hours, and found
fifty hiding-places and no one the wiser.'

'Except your sister,' I said quietly.

He made a wry face. 'Yes,' he said, 'I am afraid that I must have
stabbed her too, to preserve my self-respect. You are right.' And he
fell into a reverie which held him for a few minutes. Then I found him
looking at me with a kind of frank perplexity that invited question.

'What is it?' I said.

'You have fought a great many duels?'

'Yes,' I said.

'Did you ever strike a foul blow in one?'

'Never,' I answered. 'Why do you ask?'

'Well, because I--wanted to confirm an impression. To be frank, M. de
Berault, I seem to see in you two men.

'Two men?'

'Yes, two men. One, the man who captured me; the other, the man who let
my friend go free to-day.'

'It surprised you that I let him go? That was prudence, M. de
Cocheforet,' I replied. 'I am an old gambler. I know when the stakes are
too high for me. The man who caught a lion in his wolf-pit had no great
catch.'

'No, that is true,' he answered smiling, 'And yet--I find two men in
your skin.'

'I daresay that there are two in most men's skins,' I answered with a
sigh. 'But not always together. Sometimes one is there, and sometimes
the other.'

'How does the one like taking up the other's work?' he asked keenly.

I shrugged my shoulders. 'That is as may be,' I said. 'You do not take
an estate without the debts.'

He did not answer for a moment, and I fancied that his thoughts had
reverted to his own case. But on a sudden he looked at me again. 'Will
you answer a question, M. de Berault?' he said winningly.

'Perhaps,' I r