! there is one of them who makes me shudder," replied Paul.

"Who are you--you fellow who look the most like a Christian of the two?"
said Henri, looking at the unfortunate man.

The mulatto stood with his eyes fixed upon the two young men, like a man
who understood nothing, and who sought no less to divine something from
the gestures and movements of the lips.

"I am a public scribe and interpreter; I live at the Palais de Justice,
and am named Poincet."

"Good!... and this one?" said Henri to Poincet, looking towards the
mulatto.

"I do not know; he only speaks a sort of Spanish _patois_, and he has
brought me here to make himself understood by you."

The mulatto drew from his pocket the letter which Henri had written to
Paquita and handed it to him. Henri threw it in the fire.

"Ah--so--the game is beginning," said Henri to himself. "Paul, leave us
alone for a moment."

"I translated this letter for him," went on the interpreter, when they
were alone. "When it was translated, he was in some place which I don't
remember. Then he came back to look for me, and promised me two _louis_
to fetch him here."

"What have you to say to me, nigger?" asked Henri.

"I did not translate _nigger_," said the interpreter, waiting for the
mulatto's reply....

"He said, sir," went on the interpreter, after having listened to the
unknown, "that you must be at half-past ten to-morrow night on the
boulevard Montmartre, near the cafe. You will see a carriage there, in
which you must take your place, saying to the man, who will wait to
open the door for you, the word _cortejo_--a Spanish word, which means
_lover_," added Poincet, casting a glance of congratulation upon Henri.

"Good."

The mulatto was about to bestow the two _louis_, but De Marsay would not
permit it, and himself rewarded the interpreter. As he was paying him,
the mulatto began to speak.

"What is he saying?"

"He is warning me," replied the unfortunate, "that if I commit a single
indiscretion he will strangle me. He speaks fair and he looks remarkably
as if he were capable of carrying out his threat."

"I am sure of it," answered Henri; "he would keep his word."

"He says, as well," replied the interpreter, "that the person from whom
he is sent implores you, for your sake and for hers, to act with the
greatest prudence, because the daggers which are raised above your
head would strike your heart before any human power could save you from
them."

"He